Millions of women and children spend hours every day walking miles to collect water.
The issue
What is the problem?
There is a global crisis in water and sanitation
There is a global crisis in water and sanitation. Billions of people live in the kind of squalor that was eradicated long ago in the rich world.
884 million people don't have clean water and 40% of the world’s population suffer without a safe toilet, that’s 2.5 billion people.
This crisis kills many and dramatically affecting life in developing countries:
Health: Preventable illnesses spread by the crisis heavily overburden health systems. More than half of hospital beds in Sub Saharan Africa are occupied by patients suffering from sanitation and water related diseases.
Children: 4000 children die from these diseases every day – they're the biggest killer of young children, killing over five times more than HIV/AIDS and twice as many as malaria.
Education and gender: With children too ill to go to classes, education is suffering. Young girls simply don't attend as there aren't toilets at school, or they aren’t safe and private. Other girls spend hours of their day walking to fetch water or caring for ill siblings and have no time for an education at all.
Economies: It’s drastically affecting developing economies too - in Africa, an estimated 5% of GDP is lost to illnesses and deaths caused by dirty water and the absence of sanitation.Climate change: And climate change is making things worse – with increased pressure on water resources.
Furthermore, the water and sanitation sector is in crisis because there is a lack of political will to push through changes that benefit the poorest and most vulnerable people.
What is End Water Poverty doing?
The End Water Poverty campaign is demanding that governments provide sanitation and water for the world's poorest people. We are calling for:
- One global action plan for sanitation and water monitored by one global task force
- 70% of aid money for sanitation and water to be targeted at the poorest countries
- Water resources to be protected and shared equitably
We want rich governments to ensure good water and sanitation plans in developing countries do not fail due to inadequate financing, and we want developing countries to commit to implementing these plans.
Help us to make these changes and take action.
For more details, read:
- Sanitation: Creating a stink about the world's wastewater Maggie Black's article in the Guardian
- This Lancet editorial from March 2008: Keeping sanitation in the international spotlight (PDF)