The right to clean water and the freedom to live healthily

It is commonly accepted that access to clean water is a fundamental human right. In sub-Saharan Africa, in countries such as Liberia, Zimbabwe and Malawi this right is not at all universal.

Health

• Rural communities risk debilitating disease and death with every sip of water. 880 million are using and drinking water from unsafe sources.
• Nearly half of the developing world’s population are lacking ‘improved’ sanitation
• Just under two million people a year are killed by diarrhoeal infections alone, mostly vulnerable children, almost 4500 a day.
• The World Health Authority estimates that 94% of these diarrhoeal cases are preventable through modifications to the rural environment, that increase access to clean water and improved sanitation.

Security

• Usually, it’s women and girls who are responsible for collecting water in pots and wash buckets from wells and scraped holes in the ground that are often dirty and unsafe
• They walk, on average, six kilometres a day, carrying 20 litres of water at a time.
• These journeys expose them to sexual violence and even animal attack.

Education & Development

• Cleaner water from sources closer to the community allows for more children to attend school.
• Time spent collecting water is time not spent tending crops, not being educated, not looking after children. It is time wasted.
• These communities are condemned to subsistence levels of agricultural production. Access to clean water provides more resource to farming therefore more produce and more income.

Unless we all combine to eradicate these problems now they’ll only get worse. Populations are growing in rural Africa, further putting strain on resources. Well thought-out, community-supported solutions can arrest this decline and reinstate the right of clean water for all and allow future generations the freedom to live healthy productive lives. Pump Aid is already helping over 7600 communities, over 1 million people, enjoy cleaner safer water. Click here to discover how.