Water is the way to enable access to education

By Nicole Terrizzi, Senior Strategic Development Executive

Published August 13, 2024

I love the final weeks of summer. Whether it was my time as a student or as a teacher, the buzz of activity as we packed in the last days of sun and pool time while getting ready for back-to-school shopping has always invigorated me. I feel the same excitement as I am now doing this with my children.

In all instances, safe water wasn’t on the back-to-school shopping list. I am thankful I was able to attend school in Iowa, elementary through college and beyond because we had safe water at home. It is hard to imagine a life in which I, or my children, are unable to attend school because we are responsible for collecting the water our family needs to survive. This is, however, a reality for billions of people around the world. Today, 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water.

Meet Mueni. Mueni is fourteen years old now. Her family lives in Kenya and their daily activities were once controlled by the water crisis. “I had to collect water like this every day. Sometimes the water was for our use, and other times it was for the garden and animals. We often had to drink the water from that stream. I cannot even count the number of times my siblings and I have been taken to the hospital to be treated for amoeba or typhoid. It took a toll on our health, and it was very stressful as we would sometimes miss school due to excessive diarrhea among other things.”

Mueni’s story is not unique. In fact, the time, health, and safety challenges she and her siblings endured due to a lack of safe water at home are shared by millions of kids around the world because kids living in poverty have no choice but to help collect the water their families need. The time spent collecting water or suffering from illnesses due to consuming the unsafe water collected is time that could be spent at school.

As a former teacher, I know first-hand what resources students need to learn. There are resources such as access to an accredited program, licensed teachers, pens, pencils, paper. Then there are even more essential, undeniable resources. What I observed working in marginalized communities is that if students lack access to food, water, or shelter, it impacts their ability to reach their full potential. In those cases, I observed school is not the priority for those families—survival is.

To make systemic, global change in improving and increasing student access to school and the education provided, the universal need for safe water must be addressed. My determination to help address increasing and improving access to education started in the classroom and led to my role at Water.org where I develop relationships with our donor partners.

Access to a quality education is often utilized as a key predictor of success – employment, earnings, and even health and life expectancy – and has shown the ability to lift an individual and even a family out of poverty. In fact, for every year a girl stays in school, her income as an adult is expected to increase by 20%.

So, what can help get students the essential resources they need to ensure they have the time and health for school?

For millions around the world, access to funds stands between them and safe water and sanitation in their homes. For those without safe water at home, the price for water is high, costing families in time and money. Thus, limited to no access to financing inhibits progress. This is why we do what we do.

Water.org offers a portfolio of smart solutions that break down the financial barriers between people living in poverty and access to safe water and sanitation. In the communities we serve, financing not only empowers families with the funding needed to immediately solve their water or sanitation crises, and also empowers schools to do the same. This creates seamless access to the resources kids need between home and school for successful days of learning.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for innovation and philanthropic responses to solve 17 of the world’s most pressing challenges. SDG 4 seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. And underpinning such opportunities is access to safe water, addressed in SDG 6 which aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. To achieve the goals foundational to accessing education, health, and progress out of poverty we need to invest more in achieving SDG 6—increasing access to safe water and sanitation.

It will cost approximately $114 billion a year between 2016 and 2030 to achieve the goal. According to the latest development reports, the world is not on track to achieve this goal by 2030. The amount needed is three times more than what is currently being applied each year to solve the water crisis. Our solutions address the gap in financing and your support helps us reach more people in need, efficiently.

My hope for every child, whether they live in urban Iowa or rural Kenya, is that they have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and that starts with safe water. With access to safe water at home, what was previously a walk to a pond or stream to collect water for their family can be a child’s walk to school where they can focus on reading and writing and the opportunities ahead of them.

Give to Water.org today and help give kids and their families lasting, affordable access to the safe water and sanitation solutions they need for futures full of health, hope, and opportunity.