Posts
- Did you know that over 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water?
- Did you know that over 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation?
"‘Not having access’ to water and sanitation is a polite euphemism for a form of deprivation that threatens life, destroys opportunity and undermines human dignity. Being without access to water means that people resort to ditches, rivers and lakes polluted with human or animal excrement or used by animals. It also means not having sufficient water to meet even the most basic human needs."*
"The conditions here are terrible. There is sewage everywhere. It pollutes our water. Most people use buckets and plastic bags for toilets. Our children suffer all the time from diarrhoea and other diseases because it is so filthy."
Mary Akinyi, Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya**
- Did you know that every year over 2 million people die from diseases related to water scarcity and contamination?
- Did you know that water poverty impacts most severely on the poor, and most severely of all on women and girl-children (who do most of the labour of collecting and carrying water)?
"I will never forget how I suffered due to the lack of water. There was no water to wash the baby or myself. I was ashamed of the unpleasant smell, especially when my neighbours visited me."
Misra Kedir, recalling her child’s birth, Hitosa, Ethiopia**
“It’s really hard work because the water buckets are so heavy… I’ve heard that in other places people just turn on a tap in their house and the water comes out. I would love a tap like that in our house.”
Osuda Hasanova, Shibanai village, Tajikistan***
- Did you know that today was World Water Day?
** Ibid, p.1.
****Ibid
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