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Why Water ?

Safe drinking water is a human birthright as much a birthright as clean air. However, much of the world’s population does not have access to safe drinking water. Of the 6 billion people on earth, more than one billion (one in six) lack access to safe drinking water. Moreover, about 2.5 billion (more than one in three) do not have access to adequate sanitation services. Together, these shortcomings spawn waterborne diseases that kill on average more than 6 million children each year (about 20,000 children a day).

Water is a necessity for everyone and yet it remains a luxury to many people around the world. Every person needs a sustainable supply of clean water: for drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning.

In many countries, taps, wells and pipes delivering clean water simply do not exist and even where they do, water supply services are often not affordable or accessible, or aren’t designed to last.

Right now:

  • 785 million people don’t have clean water. (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) Report 2019)
  • 31% of schools don’t have clean water. (UNICEF, Advancing WASH in Schools Monitoring, 2015)
  • If everyone, everywhere had clean water, the number of diarrheal deaths would be cut by a third.(Tropical Medicine and International Health, 2014)
  • Diseases from water kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.
  • 43% of those deaths are children under five years old. Access to clean water and basic sanitation can save around 16,000 lives every week.
  • In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water.
  • Access to clean water gives communities more time to grow food, earn an income, and go to school — all of which fight poverty.
  • Clean water helps keep kids in school, especially girls.
  • Less time collecting water means more time in class. Clean water and proper toilets at school means teenage girls do not have to stay home for a week out of every month.
  • Women are responsible for 72% of the water collected in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • When a community gets water, women and girls get their lives back.
  • They start businesses, improve their homes, and take charge of their own futures.