Everyone, everywhere needs clean water. For many of us, it's normal to have it on tap. We use it every day in all sorts of ways and don’t think too much about it. But can you imagine life without it?
What is life like without clean water?
That's the reality for 1 in 10 people around the world – 771 million people.
When you don't have a reliable source of clean water, you have no choice but to collect dirty water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. This can spread deadly disease like cholera.
It often means a long walk to the nearest stream or river, usually for women and girls, so there’s little time or energy left for paid work or school.
Whole communities are held back, simply because they don’t have clean water.
Rita from Timor-Leste collects river water twice a day.
She digs a deep hole on the riverbank and fills it with grey, cloudy river water.
She then puts handfuls of small pebbles into the hole and waits. Sediment and pebbles slowly sink to the bottom leaving clear water on top.
It can take a long time for the water to filter.
When there is no rain, river levels are low, and water takes longer to filter - but Rita can use the same hole when she returns to the river that day.
If the weather is bad, and river levels are high the hole usually collapses, and she has to dig a new one each time.
A few people from Rita’s village are lucky enough to own a shovel but most people dig with their hands.
The long walk and the filtering process mean that Rita and other people from her village spend many hours every day collecting water.
Hawa, 44, with her daughter Kadija, 14 collect water from the River Lah in Frat, Ethiopia.
The dry season and the wet season bring very different challenges to the people of Frat. In the dry season, the main water source is either the polluted River Lah, a two-kilometre walk away, or a large dirty pond.
In the rainy season the river becomes too dirty and difficult to access and community members try to collect as much water as they can from their own rooftops.
Mubarak, 21, scoops water from the pond in Kwaja village, Nigeria. He also collects water for his neighbours that don’t have access to a motorbike or are not physically fit.
Why don't people just boil water, or move closer?
Boiling water doesn’t get rid of particles of dirt and burning a constant supply of fuel can be very difficult, expensive and bad for people’s health and the environment.
A community cannot move every time a water source dries up – it is unlikely they will find a reliable source of clean water elsewhere.
Climate change is making things even worse. Extreme weather such as heavy rain causes flooding and pollutes water sources. More frequent droughts dry up already unreliable water sources.
The climate crisis is a water crisis
Rasheeda and her daughter Shaista collect stagnant flood water to wash clothes with after a devastating monsoon flooded their village in Pakistan.
Find out more about how climate change is affecting access to water
How does WaterAid support people to get clean water?
Since 1981, 28.5 million people have got clean water with our support. With taps they can rely on close to home, school and work, people can stay healthy. Girls can swap their daily walk for water for a walk to school. Women can give birth safely. And whole communities can thrive.
We know clean water, along with decent toilets and good hygiene, really does save lives.
There are still millions of people who face the dangers of drinking dirty water every day.
Water is a human right, and we are determined to make sure it’s a normal part of daily life for everyone, everywhere.
Find out how we’re using technology to provide reliable sources of water
We focus on long-term solutions
Watch our video The Water Chain to see what it takes to make a system work. We work with all the different links in the chain to make sure water, sanitation and hygiene services are delivered to everyone and sustained long into the future.
We’re determined to reach everyone, everywhere with sustainable clean water.
We can only achieve this by working in partnership, innovating and influencing for bigger and longer-lasting change.
What can I do?
Make a donation today and help to transform lives
Make a donation today and help to transform lives
Support our work to provide a reliable source of water to people like Mulu in Ethiopia.
Read our stories from around the world
Read our stories from around the world
As well as exciting projects we run to raise awareness and money to reach people with clean water.
What we do
What we do
We’re not here for short-term fixes. With local communities we find sustainable solutions so that people can change their lives for good.
