page_title: WASH
section_title: Gender issues
hierarchical_section_title: WASH / Challenges / Gender issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Women working to draw water for her family after walking distance of 20km at Korisa village in Northeastern This is an image of "African people at work" from Kenya
context_page_description: WASH is an acronym that stands for "water, sanitation and hygiene". Universal, affordable and sustainable access to WASH is a key public health issue within international development and is the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 6. SDG 6 aims at equitable and accessible water and sanitation for all, with Target 6.2 specifically mentioning women and girls.
  Several international development agencies assert that attention to WASH can also improve health, life expectancy, student learning, gender equality, and other important issues of international development. Access to WASH includes safe water, adequate sanitation and hygiene education. This can reduce illness and death, and also reduce poverty and improve socio-economic development.
  In 2015 the World Health Organization estimated that "1 in 3 people, or 2.4 billion, are still without sanitation facilities" while 663 million people still lack access to safe and clean drinking water. In 2017, this estimate changed to 2.3 billion people without sanitation facilities and 844 million people without access to safe and clean drinking water.
context_section_description: The lack of accessible, sufficient, clean and affordable water supply has adverse impacts specifically related to women in developing nations. Women and girls usually bear the responsibility for collecting water, which is often very time-consuming and arduous, and can also be dangerous for them. Women and girls who collect water may also face physical assault and sexual assault along the way. This includes vulnerability to rape when collecting water from distant areas, domestic violence over the amount of water collected, and fights over scarce water supply. It is estimated that 263 million people worldwide spent over 30 minutes per round trip to collect water from an improved source. 
  In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls carry water containers for an average of three miles each day, spending 40 billion hours per year on water collection (walking to the water source, waiting in line, walking back). The time to collect water can come at the expense of education, income generating activities, cultural and political involvement, and rest and recreation. For example, in low-income areas of Nairobi, women carry 44 pound containers of water back to their homes, taking anywhere between an hour and several hours to wait and collect the water. 
  In many places of the world, getting and providing water is considered "women's work," so gender and water access are intricately linked. Water gathering and supply to family units remains primarily a woman's task in less developed countries where water gathering is considered a main chore. This water work is also largely unpaid household work based on patriarchal gender norms and often related to domestic work, such as laundry, cooking and childcare. Areas that rely on women to primarily collect water include countries in Africa, South Asia and in the Middle East. 
  Gender norms can negatively affect how men and women access water through such behavior expectations along gender lines—for example, when water collection is a woman's chore, men who collect water may face discrimination for performing perceived women's work. For example, women are likely to be deterred from entering water utilities in developing countries because "social norms prescribe that it is an area of work that is not suitable for them or that they are incapable of performing well". Nevertheless, a study by World Bank in 2019 has found that the proportion of female water professionals has grown in the past few years.
  
  In many societies, the task of cleaning toilets falls to women or children, which can increase their exposure to disease.
  Gender-sensitive approaches to water and sanitation have proven to be cost effective.
  Many women's rights and water advocacy organizations have identified water privatization as an area of concern, sometimes alleging negative effects that specifically affect women.
caption: Woman collecting water in Kenya.
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