Sanitation
Summary
Billions of people around the world lack access to safe and hygienic sanitation, with serious consequences for health, education, and safety. Women and girls are disproportionately affected — facing risks of violence, illness, and school absenteeism due to poor sanitation and limited menstrual hygiene facilities. These gendered inequalities are reinforced by social expectations and infrastructure that fail to meet women’s needs.
The sanitation crisis
The sanitation crisis is a global problem characterised by the lack of access to safe and hygienic toilets, leading to open defecation and the unsafe disposal of wastewater. Globally…
3.5 billion
people lack access to safely managed sanitation
429 milllion
children attend schools without toilets, forcing many adolescent girls to stay at home (it’s gendered!)
1 of 5
people drink water contaminated by human waste, leading to the proliferation of diseases such as cholera, polio and typhoid
1.4 milllion
deaths could have been prevented by water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services in 2019
33%
of urban populations in low- and middle-income countries are afflicted by the ‘triple burden’ — poverty, climate risk, and low access to sanitation services
1.8 billion
people collect drinking water from supplies located off premises, and in seven out of ten households women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection
Source: The World Bank Group, September 2025
The gendered impacts of poor sanitation
When sanitation fails, women and girls bear the burden — from safety risks and health impacts to unpaid labour and exclusion from policy decisions.
Access and safety
Women and girls often lack access to safe, private toilets, especially in low-income or rural areas. This can expose them to harassment or violence when using public or outdoor facilities.
Menstrual hygiene
Inadequate sanitation makes it difficult to manage menstruation safely and with dignity, particularly in schools and workplaces, leading to absenteeism and stigma. Lack of adequate sanitation, combined with period products being prohibitively expensive, is called ‘period poverty’.
Health impacts
Poor sanitation disproportionately affects women’s health, for example, through higher risks of urinary and reproductive tract infections due to limited facilities or unsafe water. They are also more likely to contract diseases through maintaining family hygiene and water collection.
Care responsibilities
Women and girls are responsible for fetching water in 7 out of 10 households without a water supply on the premises, meaning poor sanitation increases their unpaid workload.
Infrastructure and policy
Public infrastructure (like toilets or sanitation facilities in refugee camps) is often designed without accounting for women’s specific needs, reinforcing gender bias in planning and policy.
-
The sanitation crisis, like all global issues, is deeply intersectional. While women and girls are disproportionately affected, it is equally important to acknowledge that indigenous peoples, people of colour, low-income and rural communities, LGBTQ+ people, those with disabilities, and displaced populations are also disproportionately affected. Fitting in to one or more of these categories multiplies this effect.
This entry is written as an introduction. Each point has multiple layers, and there are several other impacts that have not been covered.
-
It is difficult to add in-text citations in this format. If you have questions about a particular source or data point, please submit a source request, and I will get back to you with in-text citations.
World Bank. The Global Sanitation Crisis. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025.
Winter, Samantha C., Laura Johnson, and Millicent N. Dzombo. “Sanitation-related violence against women in informal settlements in Kenya: a quantitative analysis” Frontiers in Public Health 11 (2023): 1-21. Accessed 22 October, 2025.
World Health Organization; UNICEF. Progress on Household Drinking-Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000-2022: Special Focus on Gender. New York: WHO and UNICEF, 2023.
UN Women. “Period Poverty – why millions of girls and women cannot afford their periods.” UN Women, July 28 2025. Accessed 22 October, 2025.
Kayser, G. L., et al. “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Measuring Gender Equality and Empowerment.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 97, no. 6 (2019): 438. Accessed 22 October, 2025.
Oxfam International; WEDC. “Shining Light on Sanitation and GBV in Camps.” Oxford: Oxfam GB, 2018.
Published 22 October 2025