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Women and girls are bearing the brunt of water shortages and a lack of sanitation around the world, hindering the economic and social development of poorer countries, the UN has warned.
Women are responsible for collecting water in more than 70% of rural households that do not have access to mains water across the developing world. Women and girls collectively spend 250m hours a day collecting water globally.
The climate crisis is exacerbating the problem, according to a new report from the UN. A 1C rise in temperature reduces incomes in female-headed households by 34% more than in male-headed ones, while also causing women’s weekly labour hours to increase by an average of 55 minutes relative to men’s.
The UN has called on countries to address the imbalance, which is leading to poorer health and worse educational prospects for women, while also affecting food security. Khaled El-Enany, the director general of Unesco, said: “Ensuring women’s participation in water management and governance is a key driver for progress and sustainable development. We must step up efforts to safeguard women and girls’ access to water. When women have equal access to water, everyone benefits.”
The World Water Development report found that data on women and girls was hard to come by, as many countries and international institutions do not collect statistics broken down by sex. But the authors said it was clear women have been severely disadvantaged in access to water for health, cooking, sanitation and agriculture, and that countries were moving too slowly to address the issues.
Alvaro Lario, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the chair of UN-Water, which produced the report with Unesco, said: “We need women and men to manage water side by side as a common good that benefits the whole of society.”
Poor sanitation disproportionately affects women, with an estimated 10 million adolescent girls in 40 lower-income countries surveyed in one study missing school, work or social activities as a result of lack of toilets between 2016 and 2022. In 2024, the latest year for which data is available, more than 2.1 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water and 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation.
Women are also under-represented in decisions made over water rights relating to agricultural land, which are often linked to property rights. Women are discriminated against in land tenure rights in many countries, with men taking ownership of twice the amount of land.
Fewer than one in five people who work in water utilities are women, a separate survey of 28 developing countries found.
Helen Hamilton, the head of public health policy at the charity WaterAid, said poor access to water and sanitation in clinics meant women were dying unnecessarily in childbirth, and women were being exposed to gender-based violence when having to walk long distances to collect water. “Today’s report lays bare a stark injustice: women and girls are carrying the heaviest burden of the global water crisis,” she said. “Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are not luxuries: they are the foundation of health, education and economic opportunity.”
When the problems facing women are recognised, whole communities can benefit, according to the World Vision charity. The organisation drilled a well in Rumate, in rural Kenya, where women used to have to walk up to four hours a day to collect water. Women helped drill the well and build the road, and have formed savings groups, established a water committee and started small businesses. Their children are healthier – no longer suffering from malnutrition linked to unsafe water – and mothers are able to spend more time with them.
Parvin Ngala, the global director for water at World Vision, said: “Harmful social norms often fail to value the time and effort women invest in securing water and exclude them from decision-making. The economic consequences are real: women’s opportunities to earn an income are almost impossible.”
