How can communities gain access to water

Thank you for your support! Previous Next. View Larger Image. Here are 10 ways clean water and sanitation help communities thrive: A young woman uses a hand-washing station outside a latrine in Malawi. Related Posts. Afghanistan Food Crisis. Responding to Conflict-Induced Hunger. Go to Top. Bogor, Indonesia, March 21, — About one year ago, Mimin, a mother of two, had to take turns with her husband to fetch water for washing and bathing from a stream near their house.

For cooking and drinking they used water from a well. The water is clean and affordable. It has made life much easier," she said. Under the project, the village received grants to distribute water from springs in the mountains to the village. The community then established a unit to manage access to the piped water. When the project started in , the village only had 47 water connections for social facilities, such as schools and mosques, and 10 public taps.

We now have house connections from none at all. Better access to clean water has helped the village improve sanitation conditions. One of the requirements that has been agreed by the community is that new house connections must have a septic tank. For example, village heads were required to obtain broad community agreement before they can apply to participate in the project. Planning was then undertaken by the communities themselves, supported by trained facilitators.

Cost sharing promoted local control and ownership, which translated into a higher willingness to collect fees for operation and management. Training was also provided to improve skills in management, finance, and technical issues to help the community sustain the program.

With good management, the village has used the extra funds to help the village, such as contributing to the village development budget, establishing a co-op for women, and purchasing a car for emergency purposes. The pandemic has made clean water more critical than ever, yet the number of people who do not have access to this fundamental resource is staggering. And the impact of limited access to clean water has further-reaching consequences than its impacts on health and safety.

Every day, women and children around the world spend million hours collecting water. Without that burden, imagine the impact on families, communities and economies if that time could be freed up. It would help unleash their inherent power and potential. The world needs investments in innovative, scalable solutions that expand water access to benefit women, children and their communities. We speak from experience — PepsiCo and Water. In Brazil, a new program to provide 15, loans, t echnical assistance and capacity building to families will help establish water systems that are lasting, dependable, and cost-effective.