Water & Sanitation
Where does this issue fit into the Millennium Goals?
Safe water provision greatly improves health in underdeveloped communities (Goals 4,5,6) and contributes to reducing poverty and hunger. (Goal 1). Further to this, Goal 7 - Ensuring environmental sustainability - not only embraces the general aim of sustainable development, it specifically seeks to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
How does this issue affect people?
The lack of clean water close to people's homes also affects people's time, livelihoods and quality of life.
Many women and children in developing countries spend hours each day walking miles to collect water. This water is usually dirty and unsafe but they have no alternative. Carrying heavy water containers is an exhausting task, which takes up valuable time and energy. It prevents women from doing vital domestic or income generating work and stops children from going to school.
Sanitation
Diarrhoea claims the lives of nearly 6,000 children a day. These children are dying because they do not have access to adequate sanitation. Their deaths, from common diseases, are preventable. Where there is nowhere safe and clean to go to the toilet, people are exposed to disease, lack of privacy, and indignity. Bad health caused by poor sanitation has a knock-on effect on the family economy and nutrition.
In many cultures women who have no access to a latrine must wait until it is dark to go to the toilet or they have to walk long distances to find an isolated spot. Where there are no toilets girls are prevented from going to school.
Hygiene education
To gain the full benefits of safe water and sanitation communities also need to know about the links between diseases and unsafe hygiene practices. Hygiene education focuses on issues such as personal hygiene - the simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by a third.
Common diseases related to poor water, sanitation and unsafe hygiene practices are: cholera, hepatitis A, dysentery, giardiasis, polio, e-coli diarrhoea, typhoid, salmonella food poisoning, bilharzia, guinea worm, intestinal parasites like hookworm and tapeworm, and trachoma.
It is vital to teach communities about safe hygiene practices and the links between water and sanitation and diseases. This enables people to become healthier and live in a cleaner environment.
Information on this page was researched and collated with the help of Oxfam Australia and WaterAid Australia the United Nations Website.
Assessment, evaluation and repair of damaged water facilities together with coordinated activities to deliver training in repair and maintenance and community ownership of the resources.
Project cost
0AUD 20,000
3,366
Raised from 1,564 people
Improve the health of Nias communities through delivery of safe, clean water and sanitation through wells, springs, rainwater tanks and building public latrines and hygiene education
AUD 10,041
Raised from 4,288 people
To improve the health and quality of life among rural poor communities in 1 village in Liquica District in Timor-Leste through integrated water, sanitation and hygiene education activities, and to advocate for increased quality and quantity output of the whole rural Water and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.
AUD 36,310
Raised from 15,251 people
Improve the health and quality of life of women, men and children through provision of sustainable community-managed water and sanitation services and support change through hygiene education.
AUD 31,552
Raised from 12,823 people
Improve the health and quality of life of women, men and children in 67 households through provision of sustainable community-managed water and sanitation services and support change through hygiene education.
AUD 25,294
Raised from 10,437 people
Provide appropriate sanitation facilities for 1,339 students at Janapatha Secondary School and support hygiene education activities.
GBP 2,203
Raised from 2,062 people
Building capture fog nets to generate a new clean drinking water supply for 300 people, Tiactac village, Western Highlands, Guatemala.
AUD 21,171
Raised from 8,106 people
Improve the health status of school children in Khati, through the provision and use of safe drinking and hand washing water, and hygiene education.
AUD 686
Raised from 256 people
Provide clean drinking water to the remote Qelqanqa Village in Peru
USD 3,008
Raised from 1,339 people
Improve the health status of children in a community school in the Daulu District PNG, through the provision and use of safe drinking and hand washing water, sanitation facilities and hygiene education.
AUD 7,506
Raised from 2,729 people