Clean Water & Sanitation
Every child deserves clean water. Not only is it a basic human right, it is also an essential building block of life that allows children and their communities to survive and flourish.
When water is clean and safe, it helps children to be healthy and well nourished. Clean water helps facilitate proper sanitation and improved hygiene, reducing the spread of diseases that kill nearly 1,000 children younger than five every day1.
And with clean water close by, children are freed from the burden of walking miles and hours daily to collect it, giving them time to go to school and realise their full potential.
Unfortunately, 785 million people around the world today do not have basic access to water2. And one third of the world’s population (2.3 billion) lack access to improved sanitation3.
World Vision does not just provide water and sanitation infrastructure, we work alongside the communities we serve, empowering them to maintain these facilities and maintain healthier water and hygiene practices on their own.
1 WHO, Don’t Pollute My Future, 2017
2 https://www.unicef.org/wash/water
3 WHO 2019
Key Challenges
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Geographic Constraints Limited resources may prevent the poor from moving closer to a water source. The daily struggle to get sufficient, let alone clean water is a way of life for the poor. |
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Lack of Infrastructure Without proper water pipelines, every day, children, usually girls, walk hours, sometimes multiple times a day, to collect heavy loads of water from the nearest water source instead of going to school. |
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Unprotected Water Sources Rivers, streams and other open water sources are susceptible to contamination from animals as well as unhygienic human activities, like open defecation. |
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Water-Borne Diseases Diarrhoea and typhoid spread through unclean water. Because hygiene levels in rural areas are low, infections and diseases spread even more easily. |
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Poor Sanitation and Hygiene Poor awareness of good sanitation and hygiene habits means practices like open defecation are commonplace and people are not aware of preventive measures to stop disease transmission. |
World Vision’s Work in Clean Water & Sanitation
World Vision reaches one new person with clean water every 10 seconds, and three more schools every day with clean water. We provide communities with sustainable clean water, sanitation and hygiene solutions that open doors to health and lasting change. Some examples of our core interventions include:
Clean Water
- Constructing boreholes, water storage and distribution systems.
- Setting up local Water Sanitation User Groups to enable communities to take ownership and protection of their water sources.
Sanitation
- Building latrines to protect people, water sources and the environment from faecal contamination.
- Educating community members on proper household sanitation.
Hygiene
- Encouraging the adoption of proper handwashing with soap to prevent the spread of diseases.
- Hygiene behaviour-change activities in communities, schools and health centres to improve handwashing, water and food safety.
Murniana, 11, from Ende, the sponsored child of Ms Saw
Water Has Arrived in a Village
"Previously, we did not have access to clean water and I could only wash my face before going out. To get water, we needed to go to the water tap some distance away. Each day, we had no time to study or play because we were busy fetching water," shared Murniana. "Now I can easily access water to bathe; clean water is near our home, and we have more time to study and play. Our families and communities are grateful. Thank you, World Vision."
Partnering with the village government, World Vision supported children and the community in Ndikosapu Village with access to clean water
Contribute to our charity for water provision to children and improve their sanitation and hygiene. Partner us to bring real change to the most vulnerable children and communities in the world.
