Closing gender gaps in providing and managing precious water resources must go hand in hand 

Despite progress, access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene remains out of reach for billions of people. In 2024, 2.1 billion still lacked safely managed drinking water, 3.4 billion went without safely managed sanitation and 1.7 billion had no access to basic hygiene services. Infrastructure in schools and healthcare facilities lags. At the current rate of progress, by 2030, only 84 per cent of schools globally will have basic water, 81 per cent basic sanitation and 79 per cent basic hygiene services. Approximately 406 million children will go to schools without basic hygiene. Adequate facilities, including those for menstrual health and hygiene, directly correlate with girls’ school attendance and educational attainment. A lack of facilities has increased school dropout rates for girls in Zambia and hindered attendance for menstruating girls in Gambia, India, Kenya, Nepal and Nigeria.

Across the world, women and girls are the primary water collectors in 70 per cent of households with no water on premises. Women’s community leadership improves water security and efficiency, and leads to greater investment in safe drinking water and sanitation infrastructure[2]. Yet only 4 per cent of women live in countries with a very high degree of gender mainstreaming in water management[3]. An encouraging example from sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates the benefits of integrating gender equality into water governance, particularly in transboundary basins and joint bodies for water cooperation. The Volta River Basin, shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali and Togo, identifies gender equality as a fundamental principle of its Water Charter. It requires factoring gender equality into policy formulation, investment and decision-making on water and the environment, and mandates equitable gender representation in all Charter organs. In 2023, women accounted for 7 (43.8 per cent) of the 16 staff of the Volta Basin Authority Secretariat, reflecting gender-balanced representation and supporting the ongoing consideration of gender issues. Achieving SDG 6 demands making water and sanitation accessible to everyone within and beyond the household, and ensuring women have a seat at the decision-making table.