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         in communities and building lasting solutions to crisis

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Take Action: Provide Clean Water for Gaza

Water in Gaza

TAKE ACTION • Make a donation for clean water in Gaza • Tell President Obama to take action for human rights in Gaza

In Gaza City, many houses have running water only once a week. In some of the poorest communities, families do not have taps in or near their homes. When families can afford it, they purchase water from desalination stations and store it in plastic containers. But this water is expensive: four times as much as water from the municipality.

The water crisis puts a particular strain on women, who are responsible for water use within families. Many women in Gaza are forced to ration water for drinking and cooking and spend long hours collecting water.

Every day, women in Gaza struggle to prevent waterborne illnesses. But without an adequate supply of safe water, they and their families—especially babies and young children—are at risk of life-threatening waterborne illnesses such as cholera and typhoid.  

MADRE Resources:

• Project: Clean Water for Gaza

• Partner: Zakher Association

• Clean Water for Gaza: Maryam's Story

• Fact Sheet: The Water Crisis in Gaza

• MADRE Brings Gaza to the United Nations' Attention

More »

 

Other Resources:

• Gaza Insomnia: No Rest For The Besieged
By Hani Almadhoun, Huffington Post

• World Water Day: Thirsty Gaza residents battle salt, sewage
By Erin Cunningham, The Christian Science Monitor

 

Water as a Human Right

TAKE ACTION: WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT • Global Week of Action for the Human Right to Water and Sanitation • TAKE ACTION: Tell the US Ambassador to the UN that Clean Water IS a Human Right

Access to water is a human right. Not only does it underpin the most basic of human rights—people’s right to life—access to safe water is also essential to the enjoyment of all other human rights. But international standards don’t reflect that reality. Because water is defined as a need instead of a right, control over this critical resource has largely been ceded to corporations.

That means that human rights standards need to be changed—and that is just what MADRE is doing. We have joined the international effort for a United Nations water covenant that would commit governments to treat water as an entitlement, guaranteeing that every person has a secure, accessible and affordable supply of healthy water. Policies that are inadequate or unjust must be changed.

We’ve done it before, and with your support, we can do it again and create a world with clean water for all.

 

More Resources:

• Water for All

• Why Water Rights Are Women's Rights