The Water Crisis
Without clean water, education cannot thrive, gender inequality grows, economic activity becomes stagnant, and development is stifled.
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Without clean water, education cannot thrive, gender inequality grows, economic activity becomes stagnant, and development is stifled.
Water scarcity is both a natural and a human-made phenomenon. There is enough freshwater on the planet for seven billion people but it is distributed unevenly and too much of it is wasted, polluted and un-sustainably managed. (UN)
Nearly 2.2 billion people globally lack reliable access to safely managed drinking water. (WHO and UNICEF, 2019)
Almost 40% of those without an improved source of drinking water live in Sub-Saharan Africa. (UN 2014)
Women and girls are responsible for water collection in 8 out of 10 households where water is not piped into the home. (WHO and UNICEF, 2017)
Women and girls in developing countries walk an average of 3.5 miles every day to fetch water. (USAID, 2013)
Lack of sanitation facilities (with clean water) for girls reaching puberty makes them more likely to miss school than boys. (WHO and UNICEF, 2019)
Contaminated water can transmit diseases such diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485,000 diarrheal deaths each year. (WHO)
The impact on child mortality rates is devastating with more than 297,000 children under five who die annually from diarrhoeal diseases due to poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water. (WHO, 2019)
Water scarcity negatively impacts the availability of hand washing facilities. 1 in 3 people, or 2.3 billion, around the world lack basic hand washing facilities at home. (WHO and UNICEF, 2021)
60% of water projects in Africa fail on average, forcing communities to return to unsafe water sources.
Less than 5% of water projects are visited after they’re constructed, and less than 1% are monitored long-term, (World Bank, 2011).
Communities where water projects fail are often not provided with the training and support required to maintain and manage their water systems.
Because of the education, maintenance, and support provided before and after water projects are implemented, 100% of Well Aware’s water systems continue to provide lasting clean water to their respective communities.
In 2011, Well Aware rehabilitated an existing borehole water well in one part of the community, and drilled a new well in another part. The resulting clean water has transformed the community and its future in many ways.Read More
Spending many hours at the river reduced the quality of her work and she often had to carry the small baby to the river to get some water for basic cooking and cleaning. The water she fetched at the river was contaminated.Read More
It was such an excitement to 2,000 Atot community members when the drill rigs finally set camp to drill a brand new clean water well in their Turkana village in a very dry area of northern Kenya, Isiolo County.Read More
Well Aware drilled a new clean water well for New Canaan in early 2019, and the start of a new era began. Not only do they now have access to clean, reliable water, but they also have ownership of this project.Read More
The first thing you notice when you walk into AIC Sunrise Primary School is the intense heat of the surrounding area. It is located in the county of Baringo which is one of the most arid counties in KenyaRead More
Since the end of our annual Shower Strike fundraiser in April, we have worked on seven water projects. And we are excited to share a sneak peek into the impact of these projects with you.Read More