What does a simple toilet facility, clean
water and hygiene have to do with the happiness and wellbeing of women and
girls worldwide?
Everything, simply.
Access to water, sanitation and hygiene translates
into gender equality: A very different kind of life for an estimated 384 million women and
girls who live without safe water, and for the 1.25 billion (that’s right,
billion!) who do not have access to a toilet.
Take a
moment to think what this actually means. How this would translate in your
life.
Try to step into the life of another.
If you
did not have clean drinking water, what would you drink? Where would you go to
fetch water? Who would be responsible for porting the water for you and your
family? What impact would this have?
If you
did not have access to a toilet, where would you go? When? How? What risk would
this pose? How about your health?
It’s
almost impossible to picture this life if since the day you were born, you have been privileged to
these basic and entitled rights.
Your
imagination can only take you so far.
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| Photo: Abbie Trayler-Smith |
This is Solo, aged 13 years-old from Madagascar. At least twice a day, she has to carry 20 litres of dirty water up a steep, narrow path, putting her health and her future at risk.
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| Photo by Mani Karmacharya |
This is Chameli, 15 years-old from Nepal. She likes to read and wants to improve her English, but at least three times a day, she has to collect water for her family – which makes her late for school and hampers her progress.
To help paint the picture, I spoke with Hratche Koundarjin, Water Aid’s UK News Manager, who is working with his team to make it known to the masses - to you and I - that water and toilets are essential to changing the lives of women and girls in disadvantaged communities, particularly across Africa and Asia.
"Traditionally - and still to this day - fetching water is considered one of women and girls’ many domestic duties," said Hratche.
