Resources
Why water is the starting point for everything else.
Clean water access is the single lever that moves health, time, education and opportunity, all at once.
What is WASH?
WASH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. It covers access to safe water, adequate sanitation facilities, and the hygiene services and behaviours that keep communities healthy: the three pillars CWAFA works across in every community.
Why water?
The crisis, in numbers.
2.2B
People (30% of the world) lack safe water at home
1.98B
People lack basic water services at their health facility
0M
People spend over 30 minutes per round trip collecting water
0M
Women give birth yearly in facilities with inadequate WASH
0M
People drink directly from a river, dam, lake or irrigation canal
Source: WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP).
Clean water changes everything
Four ways one well ripples outward.
Health
Diseases from dirty water kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. 43% of those deaths are children under five, yet clean water and basic sanitation can save around 16,000 lives every week.
Time
In Africa alone, women spend 40 billion hours a year walking for water. Access gives communities more time to grow food, earn an income, and go to school, all of which fight poverty.
Education
Clean water helps keep kids in school, especially girls. Less time collecting water means more time in class, and proper toilets mean girls don't lose a week of school every month.
Women's empowerment
Women are responsible for 72% of water collected in Sub-Saharan Africa. When a community gets water, women and girls get their time back, and start businesses, improve homes, and lead.
How do we tackle the water crisis?
We work with local experts and community members to find the best sustainable solution for each place: a well, a piped system, a BioSand Filter, or a rainwater harvesting system. With every water point we fund, our partners coordinate sanitation and hygiene training and establish a local Water Committee to keep water flowing for years to come.
Get involved →Resource library
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Categories we’ll be writing about.
- Clean Water
- Sanitation
- Hygiene
- WASH in Nigeria
- Rural Communities
- Women & Girls
- Children & Schools
- Project Stories
- Research & Reports
- CWAFA News
Coming soon
Articles in the works.
We’re building out a WASH resource hub, starting with these pieces.