March 19, 2026 | 11:08 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Despite decades of progress in water access, global inequalities continue to threaten water security, disproportionately affecting women and girls, according to the latest United Nations World Water Development Report released by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water.
The report, titled Water for All People: Equal Rights and Opportunities, reveals that women are responsible for collecting water in over 70% of unserved rural households, yet they remain largely excluded from water management and leadership roles.
“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 Khaled El-Enany, UNESCO Director-General.
Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Chair of UN-Water, added, “It is time to fully recognize 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.”
The report highlights that 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, with women and girls bearing the heaviest burden. Collecting water exposes them to physical strain, health risks, lost education and livelihoods, and higher vulnerability to gender-based violence, particularly where services are unsafe or unreliable.
Key Findings:
Women and girls spend 250 million hours daily fetching water, time that could otherwise be spent on education, income-generating work, or leisure. Girls under 15 are nearly twice as likely as boys to collect water.
Poor sanitation disproportionately affects women and girls, particularly in urban slums and rural areas. Between 2016 and 2022, an estimated 10 million adolescent girls (15–19) missed school or work due to lack of toilets and water for menstrual hygiene.
Women remain systematically underrepresented in water governance, utilities, financing, and decision-making. In 28 low- and middle-income countries, fewer than one in five water utility workers were women, who were often paid less than male counterparts. Globally, women held fewer than half of WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) government positions in 79 of 109 responding countries.
Gender inequality in land and property ownership directly limits women’s access to water, affecting productive uses such as farming. In some countries, men own twice as much land as women, restricting women’s water rights.
Gender Inequality in Times of Crisis
The report warns that climate change, water scarcity, and hydro-meteorological disasters are worsening existing gender inequalities. Women face greater exposure to risk and limited access to early-warning systems and recovery support.
Rising temperatures reduce incomes in female-headed households by 34% more than in male-headed households, while women’s weekly labor hours increase by an average of 55 minutes compared to men.
Bridging the Gap
The UN report calls for urgent measures to reduce gender disparities in water access and leadership:
Remove legal, institutional, and financial barriers to women’s equal rights to water, land, and services.
Scale up gender-responsive financing and budgeting with accountability mechanisms.
Collect sex-disaggregated water data to guide policies and expose inequalities.
Recognize and value unpaid water-related labor in planning and investment decisions.
Strengthen women’s leadership and technical capacity, especially in scientific and water governance roles.
Move beyond “low-cost” solutions that rely on unpaid labor and exacerbate inequality.
The report, published in the lead-up to World Water Day, emphasizes that advancing women’s participation in water management is crucial for sustainable development and equitable access to water for all.
Read: Greater Jakarta Weather: Why Temperatures Have Spiked Lately
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