In photos: Unicef on the impact of water scarcity on young girls

About half the schools in low-income countries lack adequate water for drinking, sanitation and hygiene

A student at the WASH facility at Kampong Thmar Primary School (Unicef/Brown)

Children, in particular girls, are the most vulnerable when it comes to lack of access to water. When floods hit, schools and health clinics are destroyed. When droughts occur, children spend less time in school and more time walking miles in search of water. Rising sea levels turn children’s communities into hazardous environments. In conflicts, unsafe water can be just as deadly as bullets. 

On average, children under the age of 15 living in conflict are nearly three times more likely to die from diseases linked to unsafe water and sanitation than from direct violence. As a result, millions of children have been displaced from their homes, creating additional layers of vulnerability to their safety, health and wellbeing.  

For girls, hygiene and sanitation hinges on access to safe water.  It’s usually the poorest and most vulnerable girls at risk. About half of the schools in low-income countries lack adequate drinking water, sanitation and hygiene crucial for girls and female teachers to manage their period. 

Below is a collection of photos that depict the struggles children and young women face every day due to water scarcity. It also shows innovative solutions to overcome the barriers and challenges to access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Muslima, who fled her hometown three years ago due to fighting and famine, has been involved in a Unicef-supported pilot initiative which trains young internally displaced Somali men and women in construction, engineering and plumbing. She says: “I love this course. I’ve learnt so much! My friends cannot believe that I’m able to do this – especially as a woman… it is time to give something back. I want to install water pumps across the camp where I live so it is a better place where everyone can have access to water.”

The pandemic has changed school life for almost every child and teacher across the globe, but for pupils at St Mary’s CE Primary School in Slough, UK, staff are doing all they can to make sure children are supported and their rights to health and education respected in these challenging times.

Luke Plumley, Year 5 Class Teacher at the Unicef UK Rights Respecting School, explains how things have changed: “At the beginning of the lockdown teachers delivered home learning packs to children unable to access the internet and care packages to families most in need. Since being back in school we have put in place new safety measures, including staggered start and end times (to reduce the number of people on site), regular hand washing, PPE for any staff teaching across year groups, and socialising in year group ‘bubbles’.

“Coming back, one of our main concerns was the impact the pandemic is having on the children’s mental health and wellbeing, so we made a conscious decision that the pupils’ mental health and wellbeing would be at the centre of everything we did after the holidays. Some children had not been in school for nearly six months, so we wanted to give them opportunities to express how they were feeling. One of the ways we did this was with Body Percussion, a resource created by Inspire Works UK, which allowed the children to show their emotions through the rhythms they created without risking spreading the virus through sharing instruments. We found that this, along with other activities, helped relax the children and reduce their anxiety about returning to school.”

Children in Jordan’s Al Khader mixed primary school take part in a handwashing demonstration. Majd, 11, says, “I wash my hands so germs don't get to me. I wash my hands before and after eating food and after using the bathroom. Otherwise I’ll get sick.

Only 33 per cent of public schools in Jordan have access to basic sanitation facilities. With this huge need for improved toilets and water provision for students, in particular for girls and children with disabilities, Unicef aims to meet the WASH needs of 10,000 students in 25 schools in 2020. 

Despite notable progress that includes increased safe water and sanitation access, challenges remain in Bolivia, particularly poverty.

Gabriela Azurduy Arrieta, 25, is an environmental engineer. At the age of 13 she was one of the first children to address the United Nations General Assembly. She participated in the landmark United Nations Special Session on Children in 2002, which focused on global progress for children and the key role that investment in children can play in building global peace and security.  

“During my speech before the General Assembly, I said that children are not the future – they are the present,” she recalls.  

“I studied environmental engineering because I needed to understand my own surroundings and one of my goals is to create a sustainable environment. Engineering is very much connected to society and how we as human beings change our environment.” 

Speaking about the rights of children as a series of universal goals, she emphasises the need to address poverty, child labour and abuse with education as fundamental to any substantive change. “Real change can occur when education improves,” she says.

Sana, 9,  lives with her family in a small house in Abu Shouk IDP camp. Her parents are farmers, and work in Shagra Valley, about 10kms away. They both come home once a week or two for a few days. 

She says, “I wake up, clean up, have some tea with peanuts and go to school. I love my school, I love to learn. I also have good friends so whenever we can manage time, we play. After school, I come home and first finish my homework, and then I help out with household work. I only go to collect water once in a while when no adults are around. 

“Because I like to study, I use our wall as a blackboard to practice my lessons.”

Water resources have long been critically scarce in the Gaza Strip. Ninety five percent of the water extracted from the coastal aquifer is now considered unfit for human consumption. Many households are dependent on unregulated and expensive sources of water from private companies. In January 2017, Unicef and its partners completed the construction of a €10m seawater desalination plant funded by the European Union. It will initially produce 6,000 cubic meters of safe drinking water a day, for up to 75,000 people living in the southern Gaza Strip. 

Donate to Unicef UK’s coronavirus appeal to ensure communities across the world have access to life-saving water, sanitation, and hygiene services: unicef.org.uk/donate/coronavirus/