In Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania average collection times for women were 20 minutes, double that of men.įor women, the opportunity costs of collecting water are high, with far reaching effects. In Malawi, the UN estimates that women who collected water spent 54 minutes on average, while men spent only 6 minutes. A study of 24 sub-Saharan countries revealed that when the collection time is more than 30 minutes, an estimated 3.36 million children and 13.54 million adult females were responsible for water collection. When water is not piped to the home the burden of fetching it falls disproportionately on women and children, especially girls.

A single trip takes longer than an hour in Mauritania, Somalia, Tunisia and Yemen. However for particular countries the figures may be higher. In Asia, the numbers are 21 minutes and 19 minutes respectively. In sub-Saharan Africa, one roundtrip to collect water is 33 minutes on average in rural areas and 25 minutes in urban areas. However, UN estimates are that in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, for 29 per cent of the population (37 per cent in rural areas and 14 per cent in urban areas), improved drinking water sources are 30 minutes or more away. The first step is providing everyone with a basic service within a 30-minute round trip, and the long term goal is to ensure everyone has safe water available at home. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal for water and sanitation, Goal 6, calls for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030. “When water is not on premises and needs to be collected, it’s our women and girls who are mostly paying with their time and lost opportunities,” he added. Think how much women could have achieved in that time.” Think how much the world has advanced in that time. “It would be as if a woman started with her empty bucket in the Stone Age and didn’t arrive home with water until 2016. “Just imagine: 200 million hours is 8.3 million days, or over 22,800 years,” said UNICEF’s global head of water, sanitation and hygiene Sanjay Wijesekera. NEW YORK/STOCKHOLM, 29 August 2016 – UNICEF said the 200 million hours women and girls spend every day collecting water is a colossal waste of their valuable time.Īs World Water Week gets underway in Stockholm and experts gather to try to improve the world’s access to water, the UN children’s agency stressed that the opportunity cost of lack of access to water disproportionately falls on women.

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