No water, no life, and safe water mean a healthy and productive life. Global statistic reveals that humans use around 4 trillion of fresh water each year. Imagine walking miles just to get water, imagine how many children have to go late to school because they travel miles to get water for their families and imagine how people die every day because of one water-related disease or the other. Access to clean and safe water is a fundamental human right but to date, so many people are deprived of this right.
In the world today 2.1 billion people lack access to clean and safe water and in Nigeria over 180 million people lack drinking water as only 0.5% of the world’s freshwater is suitable for human use.
[edgtf_blockquote text=” The quality of water available to people in various communities determines their state of health and well-being because water is an essential feature of our everyday lives.”]
Women and children are the major victims of the various risk factors of unsafe water and sanitation hygiene. Children are very vulnerable because they are still growing.
Aisha lives with her parents in a rural community in Kano state in Nigeria, she is 15 years old, and she is in primary five. Her community’s main source of water is a little stream where everyone in the community gets water from. They use that water to cook to wash to have their bath and to do virtually anything. The distance from her house to the stream is a very long distance and every morning before she goes to school she has to fetch water for her family and also to have her bath for school.
The water could be contaminated, but they have no alternative, so they risk their lives and use it anyway. Water is an everyday necessity and without water, humans cannot function as they ought to. Having clean and drinkable water prevents numerous water-related diseases from evading the lives of people. Aisha and her community can be saved from life-threatening water diseases with access to clean and drinkable water.
As part of HACEY’s dedication to improving the lives of women and girls in Africa, her clean water project has reached out to several women and girls in Nigeria by providing them with clean and safe drinking water and also training them on proper sanitation and hygiene ethics.
