Access to Clean Water
It's not a guarantee everywhere 🌏

Imagine walking miles to get clean water

I'll never forget the day. It was in the summer of 2014, a girlfriend and I were travelling in Costa Rica. One morning, we woke up to a note slipped under our hotel room door. It was a short and sobering message, written in Spanish. Translated, it read, "For today, please don't drink the water." I realized how much I had taken clean water for granted back home in the States. I mean think about it, when we turn on the kitchen faucet, don't we just expect safe, clean drinking water? I realized rather quickly this was not the case in other countries around the world. In places like Kenya, Tanzania, and Guinea (just to name a few), women and young girls walk miles to fill 40 lb. canisters and then walk back home, carrying these jugs on their heads and backs. If I'm being honest, sometimes the idea of walking to the kitchen to get water is enough to deter me, but imagine having to travel miles, on foot, to get clean water to drink, cook, bathe...to survive. The reality is that access to clean water in developing nations is not a guarantee. It's a global problem that disproportionately affects women and young girls, and needs to be addressed.

The Problematic Reality

• In 2017, more than 785 million people did not have access to at least basic water services and more than 884 million people did not have safe water to drink (Source: World Health Organization & UNICEF)
• An estimated 4,500 children will die today from water-related illnesses (Source: Charity Water)
• Women are twice as likely to collect water than men (Source: Charity Water)
• Children in developing countries spend 3 hours each day collecting water
• Women and children are disproportionately affected by this problem and it costs them opportunities. Some walk 30 minutes to an hour, one-way, (on average 4 miles) to collect water. The time it takes them to get water takes away from their opportunity to work, go to school, and spend time with their families. (Source: Charity Water)
• A study of 24 sub-Saharan African countires found that "in all of the countries, in households where a family member had to spend more than 30 minutes to collect water, the primary collectors were women, ranging from 46 percent in Liberia to 90 percent in Cote d'Ivoire. When the chore is a kid's job, there's still a major gender gap: 62 percent for girls versus 38 percent for boys. The research uncovered that in these countries, there are an estimated 13.54 million women (and 3.36 million children) who are responsible for water collection trips that take 30 minutes or longer!" (Source: Study by Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, 2016)
• The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that women and girls collectively spend 200 million hours every day collecting water, a colossal waste of time and potential.
• The strength and stamina of these women and young girls is remarkable, but they deserve to live in a world that is better, a world in which they have the same opportunities as other women around the world.

Increasing Access to Clean Water

Get Involved

Coded with Passion by Gabriella Corales ("EllaCodes")
[email protected]