The Water Girl

Shallow swamps, steep ravines, and death-defying cliffs... When there’s no access to clean water at home, families in Timor-Leste have to go to great lengths for a safe supply – and the responsibility often falls to young girls, like 9-year-old Ludivina. Now, thanks to a simple water pump from Plan International, the young girl has the opportunity to transform her life...

It’s time for Ludivina’s morning walk – a ritual which takes place every day before she goes to school. As the sun rises, the 9-year-old steps out of her wooden house, water bottles in hand, and leads her two younger siblings behind their house.

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Schoolgirls are flushed with pride on World Water Day

Girls in a rural area of Pakistan are celebrating this World Water Day with new toilet and hand washing facilities which are making their primary school happier and healthier. When community worker, Rai Nasir, heard the local primary school for girls in Vehari, Pakistan, did not have a proper toilet or a clean water supply, he knew he had to do something about it. “Women and children are the most neglected segment of my society. I am always keen to do something positive for the children in my community, so when some of the parents told me about the need for a water pump in the girls’ primary school, I took it upon myself to sort the matter out,” says Rai. Rai contacted the school’s head teacher, Azra Parveen. The two of them decided to join forces to campaign for funding for better hygiene facilities at the school.

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Why water matters

Krissy Nicholson knows a thing or two about water. To celebrate World Water Day, we ask Plan’s Water and Sanitation Program Manager why water really matters.

I have worked as an aid worker for more than ten years. I often hear the phrase ‘water is life’. But what does it really mean? I still struggle to fathom the reality of this statement. 
At the moment, hundreds of millions of people live without safe water. As a result, lives are lost and people suffer including the 2,000 young children who die every single day. This is just unacceptable! In addition, girls and women walk for hours just to collect a bucket of water, often keeping them out of school. And if they are able to go to school, there is often a lack of safe water facilities at the school so children can’t stay healthy and hydrated, and there is no water to wash their hands after using the bathroom which furthers the risk of disease. Girls face an extra challenge when they get their periods because there’s no place for them to wash, which in turn increases dropout rates and continues the cycle of poverty.

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World water day: Plan is helping communities meet their needs

On World Water Day 2013, 783 million people in the world do not have access to clean water – representing roughly one in ten of the world’s population. Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That's almost 2,000 children a day.

Plan is playing its part in helping families around the world to ensure this basic need is met. Last year we supported over 400,000 families to improve their sanitation facilities and provided over 3,500 new or upgraded water points or community water systems. Much of this work was carried out in Africa.

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Water, water - but it's not everywhere...

Plan's International Media Officer Jane Labous writes about the importance of World Water Day.

Last time I was in Dakar, Senegal, my apartment only had cold water. When I first arrived, I considered this a hardship, and I’d diligently warm a pan of water on the stove every morning for my shower. Transferring the pan to a bucket, I quickly learnt the local technique of scooping the hot water over myself with a stripy plastic kettle (they’re always stripy, always plastic...). Suddenly hot water was a luxury, not a given, and suddenly that handkerchief-sized splash of hot water felt as good as a power shower.

After a few weeks the water went off altogether, a regular occurrence in Dakar where random water cuts can last for days. 

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