Lack of Water = Lack of Equality
With the many additional burdens that a lack of clean water brings, education simply becomes less of a priority. This sets up an unfortunate cycle of poverty and inequality as without a proper education, there is little chance of improving one’s situation later in life.
Water Collection
Too often students use valuable class time to fetch water long distances from the school. They have to carry jugs that are far too heavy for their small frames, which affects the development of their spines as they grow. Frequently, they are collecting water from contaminated sources.
Disease & Death
Water and education are also linked in school absence. About 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness. Improper waste disposal and lack of water for proper handwashing perpetuates diseases such as cholera, typhoid, trachoma, and hepatitis
Water and Education Effects on Female Students
Many girls are not able to attend school because their main responsibility for the family, collecting water, requires hours of walking each day. Over half of the girls in sub-Saharan Africa who drop out of primary school do so because of poor water and sanitation facilities
Lifewater basic for education in schools
People all over the world cite lack of education as one of the main obstacles to reducing poverty. Lifewater understands that in order to improve education, issues like water and sanitation need to be addressed. That is why Lifewater is working to provide schools with safe water, latrines, and hygiene education in Africa and Asia. By reducing disease and providing for students’ basic needs for water and sanitation, schools once again become assets to the community and catalysts for a better future.
Clean drinking water and basic sanitation are critical to life.
A child dies every
Minutes from preventable waterborne diseases
An estimated amount of
Billion hours, women and girls spend in a year collecting water,
In Africa, a total of
Up to standard toilets done this year
What more in Education
Every two minutes
Every two minutes, a child dies from a preventable waterborne illness. Without safe drinking water, families rely on contaminated water that makes them sick, and they cannot wash their hands like they should.
In water-poor communities,
In water-poor communities, children spend their days walking to gather water rather than going to school. And without water at schools, children must leave class to find water, sometimes journeying so far that they do not return.
The global water crisis is an economic crisis.
Productive time spent walking for water or looking for a place to use the bathroom accounts for billions of hours a year lost in economic opportunity.