Access to Clean Water: The Impact on Women and Children

1. Access to clean water: The impact on women and children By: Hilary McGuire Citations: Sorenson et al. 2011, Baguma et al. 2013, UNICEF, water.org

2. Female role • Spend 200 million hours a day collecting water • Forgo safety and education for a basic need • High operating and opportunity costs • Caloric expenditure is higher than consumed; especially during times of drought

3. Health Aspects • Long-term back injuries • Nutrient deficiencies • Road casualties • Assault and attack risks

4. Sanitation • 3.4 million people die each year from water related disease • Unsafe water is the leading cause of infection and is responsible for 88% of global cases of diarrhea • Diarrhea is the second leading cause of child death under 5 • Lack of sanitation facilities

6. Improvement • Millennium Development Goal: water and sanitation target of halving by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. • Pipes to dwellings • Public taps • Boreholes • Protected dug wells • Rainwater collection

7. References • http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0277953611001572/1-s2.0-S0277953611001572-main.pdf?_tid=9b549484-81cd-11e2-b0ef-00000aacb35e&acdnat=1362073264_64f4f82f45855af913596871887e5d9f • http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0048969712012867/1-s2.0-S0048969712012867-main.pdf?_tid=7f81d888-81ce-11e2-97f6-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1362073647_edf048f11c7ffc1fb46f7d9ea1efed40 • http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/ • http://www.unicef.org/wash/