Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Where one is born often determines future opportunity. Mary was born in Longnot – a village in Kenya without a nearby water source. Instead of attending school to become a doctor, Mary walks miles everyday to simply access a basic necessity.
She describes how “water [is] very scarce,” and how she is often very sick from stomach illnesses and tooth decay. Hence, due to mere circumstance, Mary’s dream of becoming a doctor is greatly restricted and likely to remain only a pipe dream.
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the right to safe and clean drinking water as an essential human right. However, Mary and many others continue to live without this basic necessity.
Today, more than 2 billion people have insufficient water resources. As climate change continues to cause irreversible ecosystem shifts, the water crisis is only predicted to worsen. The United Nations 2021 World Water Development Report predicted that the world will face a 40 percent global water shortage by 2030.
While easy access to clean water is certainly a human rights issue, it is also firstly a women’s issue. Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 8 out of 10 households with water off-premises, and in a single day, women around the world will spend 200 million hours collecting water. A study from 24 sub-Saharan countries found that when the collection time exceeded 30 minutes, 13.54 million adult females were responsible for water collection. Clearly, women endure the majority of the water-carrying burden.
Hence, the water crisis is also an education crisis. Since water collection is a major activity of the day for millions of women and girls, they are left with little to no time for school: 35 million girls remain out of school worldwide.
Research in Ghana has shown a direct link between the time a girl has to spend fetching water and school absence. Lack of water particularly impacts girl’s education around menstruation. Poor menstrual hygiene management due to insufficient water has been shown to increase absenteeism.
Access to drinking water is evidently a major determinant factor of a girl’s ability to achieve a high quality education. The increasing water insecurity means that more women will be continuously charged with water collection all the while forgoing their educations.
Consequently, the UN Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty may not be successful due to the unequal participation of women stemming from lack of water.
Studies have identified access, availability, and affordability to water as essential to future improvements, since these factors drive women’s education – the most potent cure to poverty and disease.
The UN Human Development Report found that for every additional year a girl remains in school, her average income over a lifetime increases, her chances of being married early decrease, and clear health and education benefits for her children unlock, making it a key factor in breaking the cycle of poverty.
Safe water solutions will enable women and girls to attend school, graduate, and pursue employment outside of their home. By doing so, we effectively lay the foundations of a better future for women and the world.
Physically accessible water through wells is one sustainable and effective solution to the water crisis, which hinders the future success of women and hence the Millennium Development Goals.
In Morocco, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project of the World Bank aimed to reduce the “burden of girls who were traditionally involved in fetching water” in order to improve school attendance. After building additional water wells, the project found that girls’ school attendance increased by 20 percent in four years and that time spent collecting water by women and girls decreased by 50 to 90 percent.
With access to clean water through wells, women have expanded opportunities in an environment that empowers them to grow and thrive.
Mary’s story does not end where it began. Mary’s parents came together with dozens of other families in their community to create a large water well proximate to all of their homes and accessible at all times.
Mary describes how this safe water solution has changed her life: “I shower every day because there is enough water… and I am also able to clean my uniform often. This has helped me in that I am more confident.”
Now, she can go to school to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor, since she is no longer burdened by the water crisis. Urgent response should be given concerning safe water projects as everyone has the right to learn, dream, and achieve a better future.
