Water and Poverty

This quote captures the reality of the lives of people living in poor countries: the sadness, drudgery and indignity that comes with the huge misfortune of being born into poverty. When individuals suffer from extreme poverty and lack the meager income needed even to cover basic needs, a single episode of diarrhea from drinking unsafe water can make the difference between life and death – losing a job because of missed days at work, waiting until it is too late to visit the health clinic because it is a day’s walk to reach it, or selling the family’s last donkey in order to pay for medical treatment. Girls education is affected by poverty. Family relationships are also disrupted. Children are left at home alone while their mothers collect water, affecting their physical and emotional development and also putting them at risk of injury at they explore their world unsupervised by an adult. It is these real and individual experiences of poverty that we aim to recognize and address.

Poverty itself is not simply about a lack of cash income. Poverty is more complex than that, and involves other basic requirements such as education and human rights. Furthermore, poverty and water are inextricably linked.

Poverty and the global water crisis are about poor health and death from disease. Poverty and the global water crisis are also about hunger, lost sleep, limited access to education, gender inequality, and missed economic opportunities. The lack of access to a safe and adequate water supply and basic sanitation services cuts off individuals and families from life’s basic necessities and limits their opportunities for development.

Some of the key relationships between water and poverty are defined below:

Health: The lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitary latrines is the top public health problem in the world and the number-one killer of children in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world’s illnesses are water-related. Water-related diseases also cause the deaths of over 5 million people each year. Half of the victims are children under age five. Children that do survive often do not thrive: repeated bouts of diarrhea have a significant impact on the mental and physical development of growing children.

Household income: Without safe water sources nearby, women are often unable to engage in paid work or agriculture. Instead their time is spent collecting water, waking up before dawn to wait in long lines at a public water tap, caring for the ill in their households, or lacking the strength to work themselves because of injury or illness. Additionally, poor people spend a high percentage of their household income on medical treatment to combat frequent water-related illnesses. In urban squatter settlements, the lack of clean water directly impacts a household’s income. In these areas, the poor are forced to buy water of unknown quality at very expensive rates from illegal connections and are subjected to exploitation by the slum power structure.

Gender equality: Women make up a higher percentage of the world’s poor and powerless, with much less access to opportunities than men, making it even more difficult for them to escape from poverty. Ending poverty has to be about gender equality, and in no aspect of life is this truer than for water.

Lack of access to clean water has a devastating effect on women and girls who are traditionally responsible for water collection. Collecting water is a difficult and time-intensive task, leaving women with little or no time to manage their households or participate in income-generating work. Illnesses in children and adults add to women’s workloads, as they are often the care-givers for the sick. Young girls often help their mothers collect water, making them unable to attend schools. The resulting lack of education means that very few women in developing countries are leaders and decision-makers.

Education: In many countries, children, mainly girls, are responsible for collecting water. However, this activity takes place at the expense of going to school or studying. Many girls who are able to attend school initially will drop-out once they become adolescents because of the lack of toilets at schools. In many African countries, young boys are responsible for taking the cattle to water holes, which means that they might not be able to attend school either. Without education, children cannot read, write, reason, communicate or make informed choices. The lack of education has an impact on the population and economy of a country as a whole: the countries with the least educated people are the poorest.

Environment: The poor of the world are dependent on the natural environment for their daily survival. Farmers in Honduras need fertile soil. Fisherman in West Bengal, India need sustainable fisheries. Water is central to the sustainability of most ecosystems. However, the poor often have little or no control over the use of these resources and often suffer harsher consequences to pollution and poor water quality than the wealthy. In addition, poverty and the struggle to meet daily needs can cause environmental degradation by the misuse of resources for short-term survival.