why water?
Water is the best investment the world can make to reduce disease, increase family income, keep girls in school, and change lives.
Water connects every aspect of life.
Education
When students are freed from gathering water, they return to class. With proper and safe latrines, girls stay in school through their teenage years.
Girls who lack access to safe water and sanitation at home or at school face significant challenges. Compounded by the fact that their safety and health are at risk when they have no choice but to defecate in the open, menstruation poses another reason why girls in impoverished, water-insecure communities do not go to school. Access to water and sanitation changes this. If for instance in India, water and toilets were accessible to even 1% more girls in secondary school, the country’s GDP would rise more than $5 billion. Further, on a global scale, for every year a girl stays in school, her income can increase by 15-25%.
Health
Safe water, clean hands, healthy bodies. Time lost to sickness is reduced and people can get back to the work of lifting themselves out of poverty.They are responsible for finding a resource their families need to survive – for drinking, cooking, sanitation and hygiene.
Also, they may stand in line and wait for water, they may walk long distances to collect water, or they may pay exorbitant amounts of money to secure water. In their efforts to get water for their families, they often face an impossible choice – certain death without water or possible death due to illness from dirty water.
Hunger
Access to water leads to food security. With less crop loss, hunger is reduced. Schools can feed students with gardens, reducing costs.
Time spent collecting water or seeking a safe place to go accounts for billions of dollars in lost economic opportunities. There are 771 million people in the world who lack access to safe water, and of them, women are generally tasked with water collection. They spend hours, multiple times per day, waiting in long lines at community water kiosks or walking to distant sources like rivers and ponds to find it. This is time spent, and income not earned. An estimated $260 billion is lost globally each year due to lack of basic water and sanitation.
Poverty
Access to water can break the cycle of poverty. The communities we serve are ready to grow. We can’t wait to see how they choose to do it.
Safe water at home empowers women and their families to explore their income-generating potential. Instead of walking to find water, they have time to earn money by doing things like sewing, farming, and teaching. It is with income from these activities they can break the cycle of poverty.