Clean Water and Sanitation: Keys to Health and Development
The reliable ways we access clean water, the faucets and flush toilets we take for granted every hour of every day, are science fiction to a third of the world’s population. For farmers and families in many underdeveloped countries around the world, here’s what’s missing:
- A kitchen sink to wash dishes
- A faucet to drink clean water
- A place to wash clothes that doesn’t double as a drinking pond and toilet for animals
- An indoor bathroom or outhouse
- A crop irrigation system
Who Is Affected Most by Contaminated Water and Poor Sanitation?
Mothers
They can’t cook, wash clothes or bathe their children.
Children
They contract diarrhea and cholera, two waterborne diseases that are the leading cause of death for children under 5 in Cameroon.
Women and Girls
They risk being attacked on their way to retrieving water for basic needs that’s up to 10 miles away.
Farmers
They contract waterborne diseases from drinking contaminated water and suffer failed crops from no irrigation. Farmers who can’t earn a living wage are unable to feed or shelter their families.
People Living in Poverty
They lack the money to buy the most basic hygiene supplies; they have no health education system to teach them the elementary hygiene habits and disease prevention methods that could extend their lives.
The Person Most Essential to Our Lifesaving Work: You
We’re making an impact in Lebanon, Syria, Uganda, and many other areas around the world in desperate need of conditions that meet the most basic living standards. The clean water we all need to survive—to drink, to bathe, to grow food without risking disease—is an essential human necessity. Here’s what we’re accomplishing thanks to your support:
- Installing new wells and rebuilding damaged water and sewer lines
- Building and repairing safe and sanitary school bathrooms
- Implementing life-saving water purification systems
- Teaching the right way to wash hands after using the bathroom and before eating and preparing food
- Training the people who benefit from installed wells, water and sewer lines, and rainwater-harvesting systems to keep those systems functioning and do minor repairs with existing or donated tools
Your contributions create access to better lives.
