A lack of safe water, proper toilets and good hygiene affects women and girls most.
Imagine delivering a baby in a health facility without water, or sending your 11-year-old daughter out before dawn to climb treacherous hillside paths with a heavy jerry can to fetch dirty water before she can go to school.
Around the world, women and girls collectively spend as much as 200 million hours every day collecting water—the equivalent of more than 22,800 years.
This is time spent missing playtime, missing school, missing building a livelihood and the opportunity to contribute as an empowered citizen.
With access to water, girls can be freed of the tedious, and often dangerous, burden of travelling long distances to fetch water. With access to water and toilets, girls can go to school and focus on reaching their potential. With access to water and toilets, women can build a livelihood and earn money, lifting themselves, and their families, out of poverty.
Safe water means
a healthy beginning.
It means an education.
It means a future.
Let's empower women & girlsMeet Christina
Christina is 29. Her twins, Brighton and Helen were born at Kiomboi District Hospital in Tanzania this past November. In 2016, WaterAid completed work to restore the piped water connection, to install water storage tanks, to renovate the expectant mothers’ waiting home and to construct a new incinerator.
“This is the second time I have delivered my babies at Kiomboi District Hospital. I was here four years ago to deliver my first-born. The hospital was bad that time. The maternal waiting block was in a poor state and there was no water in the building and no handwashing facilities. The toilets did not have a water connection and we did not have bathrooms.“This time, when I came to deliver my twin babies (Brighton and Helen), the hospital environment was far better. There is a big difference compared to the previous time. We have water from the taps all the time, the hospital is clean and the midwives were very friendly. I am so excited to go home with my babies.”
Meet Fozia
Fozia is a seventh grade student at Korebtit Primary School in Ethiopia. They now have access to clean water and safe toilets.
“If this water didn’t come in and the new toilets were not constructed, as a girl I would be skipping classes every time I had my period. But now I don’t have to leave school. I can go to the girls’ room, which has a shower; I can change my sanitary pad, wash and come back to class.”
Meet Catherine
Catherine is 30 years old. She lives in Karwataluk, a village in northeastern Uganda. In 2013, her village received a borehole.
“I use the water from the borehole for all my water needs. I use it for drinking when thirsty, washing clothes and all other personal hygiene needs. In addition, I have dug a pit near the borehole in order to harvest the runoff water; I use that water in my kitchen vegetable garden. Even in the dry season I feed my family with fresh vegetables.I learnt to grow quick maturing food crops; as a result my family always has enough food. In the previous season, I used my savings to hire a tractor to open up four acres of land. This season I harvested 22 bags (about 2,200 kgs) of sorghum, 10 bags (1,000kgs) of maize, one bag of beans and three bags of sim sim (sesame). I sell some of the harvest to pay for my children’s school fees and keep some for planting in the next season.”
Do you want to live in a world where girls are free from the burden of walking for water?
A world where they and their families have the dignity of somewhere safe and private to go the toilet?
So do we.
That's why we need your support to make sure everyone, everywhere has water and toilets by 2030. Together we can help the world’s women and children have a better chance at a healthier, safer and productive life.
Safe water and toilets transform women's lives.
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