Because I am a Girl Blog

I know that I take my flush toilet and hot running water for granted, but I shouldn’t.

Almost half…that’s right, I said half… of the people in the world lack access to sanitation.  And almost 1 billion people still drink from unsafe water sources.  Its something that we don’t think about very often here, but lack of access to water has a big impact on women and girls in the rest of the world.

First, unclean drinking water (maybe contaminated by lack of sewers) can make you sick.  According to Plan, four children every minute die from a water-related illness, like cholera.  So, basically, if we can improve access to clean water, we can prevent millions of deaths.

As well, lack of access to water has a less direct impact on women’s lives.  Often, women are the family members in charge of collecting water for the whole family.  If there is no running water in the house, this means going to a community water source to get it.  If the water is far away, the time spent going to get it can take up big parts of the day, not leaving time for other activities like school or holding a job.  Check out how this village in Tanzania ended these types of hours-long water chores with a solar powered system.

Creating a place to get water that is closer and cleaner is one of the ways of helping to empower women and girls around the world. What we take for granted each and every day is still a luxury for many.