Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Worldwide, nearly 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Forty percent of the world lacks good toilets that are 2.6 billion people.

This mainly affects the poorest areas in developing countries. These are the areas and countries where Simavi is active. Access to safe drinking water and toilets help ensure that more children go to school, help families not having to spend as much money as before on medicines and health care. Women have to spend less time taking care of sick family members and not have to walk kilometers everyday for safe drinking water.

Our work

Simavi gives people in poor areas a healthy future by working with local partners in providing safe drinking water, sanitation and personal hygiene. Together with local organizations Simavi builds water wells, pumps and latrines and provides hygiene education. Local volunteers teach children how important it is to wash your hands after using the toilet. This reduces not only mortality, but people are sick less often and they do not need them to do in public.

Simavi committed itself, together with Dutch and international partners, to the recognition of the right to water and sanitation as a human right in the UN. As of 2010, Simavi is the lead agency of the WASH alliance, the international alliance on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. More information on the WASH alliance »