Take Action: Provide Clean Water for Gaza
Water in Gaza
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.
• 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
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.