Water is not simply a resource – it is the foundation on which human well-being is built. Clean, safe, and accessible water directly shapes how long people live, how well children learn, and how much economic opportunity communities can unlock. Yet, despite being so fundamental, 2.2 billion people worldwide still lacked safely managed drinking water as of 2024. Understanding the full scope of water’s role in human well-being means looking beyond thirst – it means examining health outcomes, education, gender equality, and the political frameworks that determine who gets water and who doesn’t.
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Water and human health: the most direct connection
The relationship between water quality and public health is immediate and devastating when things go wrong. Unsafe drinking water contributes to approximately 50% of diarrhoeal deaths globally, and children under the age of five bear a disproportionate share of this burden – accounting for around 69% of all WASH-related disease deaths. Diarrhoea is only one of many threats. Contaminated water sources can transmit cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis A, and polio. Water that is insufficient in quantity leads to water-washed diseases like scabies and conjunctivitis, which spread when people cannot wash properly.
The economic cost of this disease burden is substantial. A WHO study found that every US$1 invested in improved sanitation yields an average global economic return of US$5.5, with the benefits flowing most directly to poor children and disadvantaged communities. In other words, providing clean water is not merely a humanitarian gesture – it is one of the most cost-effective public health and development investments a government can make.
Water, education, and the cycle of poverty
Access to clean water and educational outcomes are deeply intertwined. When children – particularly in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – suffer repeated bouts of waterborne illness, they miss school, fall behind, and eventually drop out. In developing countries, about 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions, and the resulting absenteeism creates a cycle where sickness leads to missed learning, which leads to diminished economic prospects.
The problem is compounded in schools that lack adequate water and sanitation infrastructure. The absence of basic infrastructure for managing menstruation in schools has been associated with decreased school attendance rates and dropout, especially for girls. Without private, clean facilities, adolescent girls face harassment, social stigma, and physical discomfort that make staying in school extremely difficult. This is not a marginal issue – it affects millions of girls whose educational trajectories are cut short not by lack of ability or ambition, but by a lack of a clean toilet and running water.
The gender burden of water collection
In most parts of the developing world, collecting water is women’s and girls’ work – and the scale of this responsibility is staggering. In 53 countries where data exists, women and girls spend 250 million hours per day on water collection – more than three times the time spent by men and boys. Globally, in 8 out of 10 homes without running water, it is girls who are responsible for carrying heavy containers over rough terrain.
The consequences of this responsibility ripple through every aspect of their lives. For both boys and girls, water collection can take time away from their education and sometimes even prevent their attending school altogether. For women, the opportunity costs are equally severe – hours spent fetching water are hours unavailable for paid employment, childcare, or community participation. In Malawi, for instance, the UN estimates women spend an average of 54 minutes per day collecting water, while men spend just 6 minutes. This imbalance traps many women in what researchers call “time poverty” – a state with limited opportunities for activities that could improve overall welfare.
The physical risks are just as serious. The long distances covered to collect water expose women and girls to physical safety risks, and the absence of latrines can force women to wait until nightfall to relieve themselves, significantly increasing the risk of physical and sexual assault. The lack of clean water and sanitation is not just a public health issue – it is a gender justice issue.
Water as a social determinant of well-being
Public health researchers classify access to safe water as a social determinant of health – a background condition that shapes whether people can live healthy, productive lives. This framing is important because it shifts the conversation from individual behaviour to structural inequality. People in water-insecure areas are not sick because of personal choices; they are sick because of where they live and the resources their governments have or have not provided.
Without safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene services, people’s wellbeing, dignity and opportunities are severely impacted – particularly those at the margins of society. The connection between water and well-being extends to food security (agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s accessible freshwater), energy production, ecosystem health, and economic productivity. Water is essential not only to health, but also to poverty reduction, food security, peace and human rights, ecosystems and education. Addressing water access is therefore not a single-sector problem – it requires coordinated action across health, agriculture, education, and governance.
Water as a fundamental human right
The recognition of water as a human right was a pivotal moment in global development policy. On 28 July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 64/292, which explicitly recognized water and sanitation as a human right, acknowledging that they are essential to the realisation of all human rights. This was not merely symbolic. It placed a legal and moral obligation on governments to ensure that all their citizens – regardless of income, location, or social status – could access sufficient, safe, and affordable water.
The human right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic use. Critically, this framing demands that governments take a rights-based approach to water policy – one that prioritises the needs of marginalised communities rather than treating water primarily as a commodity. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council recognized access to water and sanitation as a human right, and the 2015 adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals embedded this commitment in binding international targets.
SDG 6 and the path to equitable water access
The global community’s most concrete commitment to water well-being is embedded in Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by 2030. SDG 6.1 specifically calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all, while SDG 6.2 focuses on sanitation and pays special attention to women and girls. Progress has been made – since 2015, nearly 700 million more people have gained access to safely managed drinking water. But the pace is far too slow.
In 2022, roughly half the world’s population experienced severe water scarcity for at least part of the year, and one quarter faced extremely high levels of water stress. Climate change is making this worse by making rainfall more unpredictable, intensifying droughts, and contaminating existing water sources. Rising temperatures will exacerbate the water collection burden globally – a 1°C temperature rise has historically increased daily water collection times by 4 minutes, and by 2050, collection times could rise by 30% globally under a high-emissions scenario. This is not a distant threat; it is already reshaping the daily realities of millions of women and children in water-insecure regions.
What equitable water access actually requires
Achieving the well-being benefits that water can deliver requires more than drilling wells – it requires systemic policy change. Governments must invest in water infrastructure, particularly in rural and underserved urban areas. Gender must be factored into WASH programme design, because interventions that ignore women’s specific needs will inevitably fail the communities that need water access most. Fewer than 50 countries currently have laws or policies that specifically mention women’s participation in rural sanitation or water resources management – a critical gap that must be closed.
Community-level approaches also matter. New concepts focus on smaller, community-based projects chosen by households and implemented through mechanisms like microcredit, which have been shown to significantly improve sanitation outcomes. Investments in infrastructure must be paired with hygiene education, because clean water delivered into homes without parallel efforts to change unsafe practices only partially solves the problem. And crucially, the financing of water systems must reflect the principle that water is a right – not a luxury available only to those who can afford it.
What do you think? Given that water collection disproportionately burdens women and girls in developing countries, should gender equality be a central metric when evaluating the success of national water access programmes? And if water is a legally recognised human right, what accountability mechanisms should exist when governments consistently fail to deliver it to marginalised communities?
References
- https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water-and-sanitation/
- https://www.joghr.org/article/92160-water-as-a-social-determinant-of-health-bringing-policies-into-action
- https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/water
- https://thewaterproject.org/why-water/health
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6560376/
- https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-gender
- https://www.unicefusa.org/what-unicef-does/childrens-health/water-sanitation/safe-water-projects/girls-water-burden
- https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-collecting-water-often-colossal-waste-time-women-and-girls
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-02037-8
- https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/environmental_protection-protection_environnement/water-eau.aspx?lang=eng
- https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2020/07/10th-anniversary-recognition-water-and-sanitation-human-right
- https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/human-rights-water-and-sanitation
- https://unece.org/environment-policy/water/areas-work-political/equitable-access-water-and-sanitation
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50770/
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