Fetching water is a demanding task, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where it is common for people to spend over 30 minutes for a single water fetching trip. This task falls mostly on women and girls, who, in nearly 80% of households lacking direct water access, bear the primary responsibility for water collection.
In some countries in Africa, the percentage of women responsible for water collection drastically exceeds that of men. In some cases this percentage is higher than 80%, highlighting a deeply rooted inequality in the distribution of domestic labor.
The time invested in water collection is considerable, with many indicating durations between 30 minutes to over an hour per trip, as illustrated by the yellow and orange segments in the chart below.
