The global water and sanitation crisis affects everyone – but not equally. Where people lack safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, women and girls are more vulnerable to abuse, attack and ill-health, affecting their ability to study, work and fully participate in society. Women and water issues Women and girls usually have the responsibility of fetching water. This can be a dangerous, time-consuming and physically demanding task. Long journeys by foot, often more than once a day, can leave women and girls vulnerable to attack and often precludes them from school or earning an income. For women and girls, sanitation is about personal safety. Having to go to the toilet outside or sharing facilities with men and boys puts women and girls at increased risk of abuse and assault. Women and girls have specific hygiene needs. A clean, functional, lockable, gender-segregated space is needed, with access to sanitary products and disposal systems, for women and girls to manage menstrual hygiene and pregnancy. Lack of safely managed water and sanitation is an equality issue. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poor water, sanitation and hygiene services and facilities. However, their voices and needs are often absent in the design and implementation of improvements, thereby ensuring their continued marginalization. By failing women and girls, we risk the 2030 Agenda. Access to water and sanitation are human rights. Where females are unable to enjoy those rights, their health is profoundly affected, curtailing their educational and economic opportunities, and denying them their full role in society. Facts and Figures - Women and water Globally, 26% of women and girls – 1.1 billion – lack access to safely managed drinking water. (UNICEF calculations based on World Population Prospects 2024 (female population estimate)) In 53 countries where data exists, women and girls spend 250 million hours per day on water collection – over three times more than men and boys. (UN Women, 2024) Worldwide, only 2 out of 5 schools (39%) provide menstrual health education. (WHO/UNICEF, 2024) Adolescent girls and women living in rural areas are more likely to use reusable materials to manage menstruation and to have no improved water services on premises. (WHO/UNICEF, 2025) 1.8 billion people still do not have drinking water on-premises, and in two out of three households, women are primarily responsible for water collection. (WHO/UNICEF, 2023) Adolescent girls age 15 to 19 are less likely to participate in work, school and social activities during menstruation compared with women age 20 to 49. (WHO/UNICEF, 2025) Fewer than 50 countries have laws or policies that specifically mention women’s participation in rural sanitation or water resources management. (UN-Water, 2021) More than 1 million women and girls say that WASH services are their second most important demand for quality reproductive and maternal health, after dignified and respectful care. (WHO/UNICEF, 2023) 1 million deaths each year are associated with unclean births. Infections account for 26% of neonatal deaths and 11% of maternal mortality. (WHO/UNICEF, 2019) While supplying almost half of all agricultural labour in low and middle-income countries, women’s agricultural productivity is on average 20–30% lower than male farmers’. (FAO, 2017) In 2023, about 15% of countries still had no mechanisms to ensure effective participation of women and parity in decision-making and technical roles in water resources management. (UNEP-DHI, GWP, UN Women, 2025) The way forward Women must shape the future of water. We need a transformative, rights-based approach to solving the water crisis, where women’s voices and agency are fully recognized. We must invest in women’s leadership to make water a force for a healthier, more prosperous, gender-equal future that will benefit us all. Gender-responsive WASH is critical for the 2030 Agenda. Embedding gender equity into policy at all levels will be crucial to achieving water and sanitation for all, which in turn will help advance many other parts of the SDG agenda, particularly poverty reduction, health, education, and work. WASH is critical to eliminating violence against women and girls. Female safety and dignity must be paramount in WASH service design. Plus, rectifying gender imbalances in WASH governance and management, at all levels, will ensure the suitability of services and raise the status of women in society. Source : UN Water WASH story of India