Singapore tops global ranking of 180 countries in providing safe, clean drinking water

SINGAPORE - Singapore leads the world in the provision of safe and clean drinking water in the latest ranking of 180 countries by Yale University.

The United States-based university, in its 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), ranked countries on their sanitation and water standards based on the likely health impact from exposure to unsafe sanitation and unsafe drinking water, particularly the risk of bacterial contamination leading to diarrhoeal diseases.

The report said: “Singapore not only has universal access to safe sanitation, but it is also a global leader in the treatment and reuse of wastewater. The Singaporean Government has integrated wastewater reuse into its socioeconomic development and water security.”

For the ranking, the health risks associated with each country’s water and sanitation were given a score based on a formula that calculates the loss of one year of full health, which the World Health Organisation calls disability-adjusted life years, adjusted for age.

A score of 100 means the country has among the lowest loss of health in the world, while a score of zero indicates the highest loss of health.

Singapore scored 99.9 in the EPI report, edging out Italy (98.2), the UK (98.2), Switzerland (98.0) and Germany (97.9). At the bottom end were mainly African countries like Madagascar (12.9), Niger (12.2), Lesotho (9.4), the Central African Republic (8.9) and Chad (4.3).

Clean drinking water refers to the accessibility, availability and quality of the water used by a given family for daily health and household needs, the report said.

“An adequate water source must be easily accessible and unlikely to be contaminated, particularly by faecal matter,” it added.

Examples of adequate water sources include household water connections, public standpipes, boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection, it said.

The EPI said exposure to unsafe drinking water in a household is based on its primary water source and its treatment of drinking water to improve its quality before consumption, which includes boiling or filtering water.

Exposure to unsafe sanitation is determined by the type of toilet used by households. This ranges from “unimproved” facilities, such as open defecation, to “improved” ones like composting toilets, to flush toilets.

Apart from sanitation and water, the EPI also ranks each country’s performance on 10 other environmental issues on their progress towards mitigating climate change, improving environmental health and protecting the vitality of its ecosystem.

Singapore ranked 44th in the overall report. It scored poorly – coming in at 129th – for marine habitat conservation, and was 96th in climate change mitigation, and 65th in ecosystem vitality.

In the 2022 EPI report, Singapore ranked 21st in sanitation and drinking water. 

Published once every two years, the report used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, published by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which compiled data from 204 countries on household water sources and sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2021.

The EPI report said: “Singapore’s national water agency PUB pioneered the automation of drinking water monitoring and early warning systems. The country now benefits from a robust monitoring system to test drinking water for potential chemical, microbiological and radiological contaminants.

“Yet, despite the top quality of their tap water, many Singaporeans boil tap water before drinking, further removing potential bacterial and chemical contamination.”