Access to clean water and sanitation is one of the most fundamental human rights. Still, billions of people all around the world lack these basic necessities. The United Nations has shown that it recognizes the importance of this issue by making it one of its sustainable development goals. Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), one of 17, aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for all people in the world by 2030. However, the U.N. also acknowledges that without accelerated progress, this goal, and others, will not be met.
This blog post will explore the importance of clean water and sanitation, the challenges faced by those who lack adequate access, and how to achieve clean water and sanitation through community-led development.
The Global Clean Water and Sanitation Crisis
OUTREACH PROJECT: The community of El Oregano in Nicaragua had a gravity-fed water system, built 30 years ago, with a roughly 200-liter tank to serve 15 households, that would remain empty during the dry season. The community group mobilized to access 1,200 meters of pipe which they ran to a clean, reliable water source, a 2,500-liter storage tank, and each household received a more than 200-liter barrel to ensure year-round water security.
How many people do not have access to clean water?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, 2.2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services. What’s more, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic hand washing facilities. These are enormous percentages of the world’s population, and the geographical distribution of the problem brings to light that the majority of people who face this issue every day live in some of the most impoverished and remote communities of low and middle income countries.
The importance of having adequate access to clean water and sanitation cannot be overstated. It’s crucial for food security, education, and employment opportunities. And all these factors relate to people’s present and future socioeconomic opportunities. Most urgently, people rely on safe water for health. When these basic services are not provided in communities, people there live with a higher risk of contracting waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid. In high income countries, these diseases are both preventable and curable. But according to UNICEF, the millions of children under five who contract diarrhea because of inadequate safe water, sanitation, and hygiene have their lives at risk.
Clean Water and Sanitation Problems and Solutions
OUTREACH PROJECT: Three communities in DR Congo – Bulaya, Kanyaka, and Kanamankute – were dealing with contaminated water, forcing people to travel for two to three hours per day to collect water from a safe source. We sponsored a solar water system project that included the installation of multiple water points that are now operational.
Clean water and sanitation problems vary greatly by region. Therefore, solutions must be found with an approach that’s unique to each specific issue. One of the major challenges is water scarcity, which affects half of the world’s population for at least some months of the year. Climate change exacerbates this issue, with rising global temperatures leading to more unpredictable water availability and more frequent droughts. Another ongoing factor is water pollution from industrial waste, agricultural chemicals runoff, and inadequate sewage treatment. This all further degrades water quality, making it unsafe for consumption.
To address these challenges, several solutions are necessary:
- Infrastructure Investment: Building and maintaining water and sanitation infrastructure is critical. This includes constructing wells, pipelines, and sewage treatment plants.
- Hygiene Education: Educating communities about the importance of effective hygiene practices, such as handwashing, can significantly reduce the spread of waterborne and other communicable diseases.
- Water-Use Efficiency: Improving water-use efficiency in agriculture, industry, and households can help reduce water stress and ensure more sustainable year-round use of resources.
- Community-Led Development: Empowering communities to take charge of their own water and sanitation needs ensures that solutions are tailored to local contexts and are more sustainable in the long term.
Outreach International and Community-Led Development
OUTREACH PROJECT: In the Philippines, we financed a sanitation microloan project so people could build safe, sanitary toilets in their homes, and learn how to maintain them. 118 households built bathrooms that are now benefitting 722 people.
Outreach International plays a crucial role in using community-led development to solve clean water and sanitation challenges. By working directly with communities in developing countries, we help community-led organizations identify their own issues and develop solutions that are geographically and culturally appropriate, and sustainable. This approach not only addresses immediate needs but also builds long-term resilience that can last for generations.
One of our primary strategies is to involve women, youth, and indigenous communities in water resource management. These groups often have unique insights into local water challenges and can be powerful advocates for change. This is the case because in many communities, women are the ones who are responsible for collecting water. Yet, they often have little say in their community about how water resources are managed. This is due to long-standing cultural norms that place women below men in society. By involving women in decision-making processes, we help to ensure that water solutions are not effective but equitable.
How to Achieve Clean Water and Sanitation
How to achieve clean water and sanitation, an initiative referred to as WASH, on a global scale is a complex and far-reaching challenge. It requires coordinated efforts across sectors, borders, governments, and international organizations. Some of the key strategies include:
- Increasing Investment: Achieving universal access to clean water and sanitation by 2030 (SDG6) will require substantial increases in global investment. According to the United Nations, the rate of progress must increase sixfold for drinking water, fivefold for sanitation, and threefold for hygiene to meet SDG6.
- Promoting Innovation: New technologies and approaches are needed to address water and sanitation challenges. This includes everything from low-cost water filtration systems to more efficient irrigation techniques.
- Enhancing Cooperation: Water is a shared resource, and effective management requires cooperation between communities, social classes, and borders. This is particularly important for water sources that are shared across borders, where conflicts over resources can arise.
- Integrated Water Management: Adopting a more holistic approach to water management can help balance the needs of agriculture, industry, and households while preserving ecosystems and biodiversity. All of these factors must be sustained if a solution is to be effective in the long term.
Linking Clean Water and Sanitation to Sustainable Development Goals
SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation, is closely linked to the other 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This includes those focused on health, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. For example, affordable clean energy (SDG7) is essential for powering water treatment facilities. This will ensure that communities have access to clean water. Additionally, clean water and sanitation are critical for achieving SDG 3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.
Because the SDG goals are interconnected, the approach to solving them all to achieve sustainable development must be comprehensive. Addressing clean water and sanitation issues is not only urgent. It’s an essential piece to the large and complex puzzle of meeting these goals to improve life for all people. Solving poverty-related issues through collective action is what Outreach International’s methodology of community-led development is all about. But because these goals span the globe, worldwide participation is needed. We must each decide the role we will play in making the world a better place, both now and for the future of our children.
How to Help
You can learn more about community-led sanitation initiatives, and how community-led development is a proven method for solving issues of poverty around the world.
