ADM NEWS | Despite decades of progress, inequalities continue to compromise global water security, disproportionally impacting women and girls, who despite of being the main collectors of water, continue to be excluded from water management and leadership roles.
This is the conclusion of the United Nations World Water Development Report, published by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water. The report reveals that women are responsible for collecting water in over 70% of unserved rural households.
Ensuring women’s participation in water management and governance is a key driver for progress and sustainable development. We must step up efforts to safeguard women and girls’ access to water. This is not only a basic right, when women have equal access to water, everyone benefits,” said UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany.
”It is time to fully recognise the central role of women and girls in water solutions – as users, leaders and professionals. We need women and men to manage water side by side as a common good that benefits the whole of society,” added Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and Chair of UN-Water
The United Nations World Water Development Report is released annually in the context of World Water Day. This year’s report, Water for All People: Equal Rights and Opportunities, warns that 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, with women and girls bearing the heaviest burden. Women and girls are most often responsible for collecting and managing water for their households, exposing them to physical strain, lost education and livelihoods, health risks, and heightened vulnerability to gender-based violence — particularly where services are unsafe or unreliable.
Climate change, water scarcity and hydro-meteorological disasters are exacerbating existing gender inequalities, particularly in water-stressed and disaster-prone contexts. Gender remains a key determinant of vulnerability, shaping exposure to risk as well as access to early-warning systems, recovery support and long-term livelihood security. Evidence shows that climate change disproportionately affects women: a 1°C rise in temperature reduces incomes in female-headed households by 34% more than in male-headed households, while women’s weekly labour hours increase by an average of 55 minutes relative to men.
The report provides concrete recommendations to drive meaningful progress, including:
Removing legal, institutional and financial barriers to women’s equal rights to water, land and services
Scaling up gender‑responsive financing and budgeting, with strong accountability mechanisms
Investing in sex‑disaggregated water data to expose inequalities and guide policy
Valuing unpaid water‑related labour in planning, pricing and investment decisions
Strengthening women’s leadership and technical capacity, particularly in scientific and technical fields of water governance
Moving beyond “low‑cost” solutions that rely on unpaid labour and exacerbate inequality.
World Water Day is an annual United Nations observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
➤ WAM
