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  • The crisis
Walking back from the water source, Fikaji, Bauchi Sate, Nigeria.

The crisis

Nobody should live like this. Our vision is of a world where everyone everywhere has access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

people in Nigeria don't have access to safe water.

Over 130 million people don't have access to adequate sanitation in Nigeria, two thirds of the population.

In Nigeria, almost 60,000 children under five years old die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation.

Nigeria is the most densely inhabited country in Africa with a population of  more than 174 million people and growing rapidly. As the population increases, remote communities are further cut off and urban facilities become overloaded.

Poverty is widespread in Nigeria, and despite a natural wealth of gold, oil and diamonds, these potential resources are not being transformed into employment or improvements in living standards for millions of people.

Many people occupy urban land that is unsafe to live on and often under the threat of constant eviction.

Urban areas commonly lack clean water and toilets and any available facilities are often communal, unlit and dirty.

In rural areas, living standards are often equally as bad. Communities are cut off from the benefits of development like roads, water supplies and toilets.

Many people spend long hours each day collecting water, with huge costs to their health and livelihoods.

Find out more about how we tackle these issues in Our approach >

A woman fills up her white plastic water container. Her baby is strapped to her back and looks at the camera.

How it affects people

Girls fetching water from a water source

Adolescent girls

Nyemo Amani, Tanzania, spends around four hours a day collecting water. Her school has no separate toilets for girls, so she drops out when she is menstruating.
A disabled man

Disabled people

For disabled people like Bartholemew Mtelia, who lost his leg in a lion attack in Tanzania, it can be extremely difficult to fetch water and sanitation facilities are often inaccessible.
A woman washing her child

Infants

Francis Okello washes her son outside the hospital, Uganda. Infants are unable to develop normally if their bodies are deprived of essential vitamins and nutrients because of diarrhoea.
An elderly woman putting on a jacket

Older people

In countries with little or no social security, older people are often forced to pay people to fetch them dirty water or make other sacrifices such as going without food or medication.
Two boys filling water bottles from a tap

Schoolchildren

New taps installed at a school in Tanzania. Teacher Abraham Amas says, “Before, girls were not attending well, they were always late because they were fetching water.”
A group of adolescent girls fetching water with containers

Women

The time-consuming burden of collecting water in developing communities generally falls on women, often taking several trips a day and many hours of their time.