The Unseen Consequences of Unsafe Water

Jun 17th, 2009 2:57 PM UTC
By ONE Partners

The pond in Jisonayili, Tamale, where a girl drowned collecting water. Photo: WaterAid / Jon Spaull

If today is a typical day, 4,000 children under five will die from diarrheal diseases caused by unsafe water and inadequate sanitation. Millions of women will spend hours collecting water from rivers, streams and other distant sources, rather than earning money or growing food. Thousands of children will miss school due to water-related illness or water collection.

The impacts that unsafe water and sanitation have on health, education and livelihoods are profound, but well documented. It’s a disturbing, but sadly familiar tale.

But whenever I visit a WaterAid program and speak with communities, I am caught by surprise hearing individual accounts about the less expected, but no less devastating, costs of unsafe water.

In Tamale in Ghana, I spoke with a community mourning the loss of a young girl who died due to an unsafe water source – not from drinking the water, but because she fell into an open pond and drowned. When families are struggling to survive, adults simply do not always have the time to supervise children collecting water.

In the Kiteto District of Tanzania, women were crushed and killed when a hand-dug well collapsed on them.

In the mountains of Nepal, a grandmother confessed the guilt she felt at leaving her baby grandson unattended every morning. She had no choice: she could not carry him up the steep rocky path from the water source, and the family needed water, so babysitting had to come second.

Mana Laxmi Shakya, from Nigalopani village in Nepal, with the grandson she has to leave alone while collecting water. Photo: WaterAid / Libby Plumb

In Ethiopia, villagers expressed their gratitude for a new water point, telling how it would save women from being sexually assaulted as they crossed a forest to reach the river where they used to collect water.

Investing in safe water supplies is essential in improving health, reducing infant mortality and boosting productivity. But it’s also a vital key in keeping families safe in other ways: freeing up time for families to spend together, and increasing the security of women.

Investing in water is not only an investment in economic growth and poverty reduction, but it is an investment in people. And that is why the U.S. Government must continue to strengthen its work to support developing country governments in their efforts to deliver the basic service of safe water to those in need.

To learn more about how WaterAid works to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education, please visit www.wateraidamerica.org.

-Libby Plumb, Senior Communications Advisor, WaterAid America

TAGS: From Our Partners, Water and Sanitation, WaterAid America, Women ONE2ONE