World Water Day: March 22, 2012


March 22 is World Water Day, a day established by the United Nations to look at water issues around the world. At WaterAid we use this day to raise awareness of the fact that 11% of the world's population do not have safe water to drink and that this, coupled with poor sanitation, results in 4,000 children dying every day.

How you can help:

Donate Your Voice

  • Donate Your Voice. Allow us to post daily status updates for World Water Week. Make your voice heard today through March 24. Choose Facebook or Twitter.  
  • Write to your Members of Congress to ask them to support the the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act.

  • Make a donation: as experts in practical, hands-on water solutions WaterAid has helped bring clean water to nearly 16 million people. But we need your help to achieve our aim of helping 1.4 million more people this year.
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Why are good water supplies important?

  • Clean water reduces the spread of diarrheal diseases that are the biggest killer of children in Africa
  • Accessible water supplies mean women can spend time working to earn money or caring for their families, rather than walking for hours in search of water
  • Sufficient water supplies mean there is water available for washing and watering gardens, as well as drinking and cooking
  • Find out more key facts about water and sanitation
  • Watch a video about WaterAid's work

WaterAid's World Water Day 2012 video

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Tanzania, East Africa

Clean water cuts disease and boosts education

A Kinina Coulibaly washes her hands in clean water from a WaterAid water point in Mali, West Africa.

Fourteen year old Husna lives in the Singida District of Tanzania.

WaterAid helped her community to build the new well pictured above, which is very close to her school.  We also helped set up a hygiene club in the school which teaches the children the importance of washing their hands, using clean water containers and other basic hygiene that helps safeguard their health. 

The result is better health and improved school attendance, as Husna told us:

“I had to use a traditional well before we had the pump. At that time we had to go every day to the traditional well to fetch water. It took half an hour to get there and the water was very dirty. During the dry season there was very little water so we had to wait a long time to collect enough. I fetched the water after school every day. Now it takes a lot less time to collect water and we know the water is safe.

"Now there is less illness in the school. At that time I got ill and sometimes had to miss school and I felt bad because my fellow friends were continuing their studies but I had to stay at home. During the rainy season most of the children got ill, I think it was because there were a lot of micro-organisms in the water.”

Photo: WaterAid / Marco Betti

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