Water & Sanitation

About the Situation

More than anything else, people need clean water to live a healthy, safe, productive life.

Water affects everything: Nutrition, health, livelihood, even access to education.

Without water to drink, people can’t live. Without water for their crops and livestock, they can’t eat enough or earn a living. If their water isn’t clean, they won’t be healthy. If their water comes from a faraway source, they have to spend their days carrying it instead of going to school or earning an income. *** This is especially true for girls, young ladies and mothers—Read Islamic Relief USA’s blog post, “The Water in the Flower Vase” to learn how water collection affects them, and how you can help change their circumstances.

And too much water – from monsoons and floods—is just as dangerous as too little.

If you don’t have a clean, reliable source of the right amount of water, life revolves around finding it. It’s a burden you struggle under every single day.

Nearly 1 billion people around the world live this way – almost one in seven people on Earth lack access to clean water.

Muda Billow, a father in Sarohindi village in Mandera, Kenya, used to have to rely on the rain for water. This reliance destroyed his livelihood. Drought killed 60 of his goats—the essential source of milk, food and income for many people in the region—and left his children malnourished.

“The rains are unreliable,” he said. “When they are good, we can grow crops, but not anymore.  … When I had 100 goats, I had wealth and I could serve myself and my family, but now I am poor and cannot provide them with anything.”

Islamic Relief set up a water-supply system in Sarohindi village, where the people can get water for themselves and their animals.

“We now have a reliable source of water in this village, which means we don’t have to walk long distances to other wells or to the river,” Muda said. “… We are very thankful to Islamic Relief.”

Clean water is closely linked to adequate sanitation. In communities without sanitation facilities human waste often contaminates water supplies. The contaminated water then spreads preventable illnesses, such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and hepatitis A.

The effects are stark: According to the United Nations, diarrhea is the top cause of illness and death worldwide, and nearly 90% of diarrhea cases could be eliminated by improved sanitation and drinking water. With improved sanitation and water, the lives of more than 2 million children could be saved each year!

How Islamic Relief is Helping

These problems are solvable, and the solutions are clear: Deep-water wells, water-treatment systems, adequate sanitation and irrigation systems.

Islamic Relief has long launched water projects in impoverished communities, helping one village full of people at a time.

One such region is the Circle of Gorma Rharous in Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries. There, Islamic Relief is setting up irrigation systems so the communities are not dependent solely on rainwater and are therefore less vulnerable to drought. This project is literally turning the desert green. And now children who used to spend days carrying water can attend their new school instead.

Here are some of Islamic Relief’s current and recently completed water and sanitation programs:

• Haiyuan ecological management demonstration project, China
• Huanxian rainwater catchment, China
• Tongijang education, health, and water supply program, China
• Water and sanitation, Mali
• Water, health, and environment program, Yemen
• Al Selo water and health project, Yemen

Read “Water Saves Lives‐Builds Livelihoods,” a blog written by Islamic Relief USA’s Reem El-Khatib while in the field in Niger, about how Islamic Relief donors are helping bring clean water to communities in need.

HOW YOU CAN HELP