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WASH: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Clean water, proper hygiene, and sanitation prevent disease from spreading in a community. Good health depends on clean, disease-free water. When clean water is present in a village, illness from water-borne diseases and parasites no longer hold families in a cycle of sickness and poverty. Parents are strong and able to work, children can focus and learn at school, and entire communities become healthy. Access to safe, uncontaminated water is often a critical first step toward transformation for an entire community. Training on proper hand washing and how to maintain latrines helps reduce the spread of diseases and fosters hygienic practices amongst community members.

What We Do

Access to Clean Water

By digging wells, installing rainwater collection systems on homes and community buildings, and providing water filters that remove 99% of germs, bacteria, and parasites at the household level, these sources provide a way for families to have better access to safe and clean water. Community contribution is also vital to sourcing the land, attaining the materials, and labor needed to build this infrastructure.

Sanitation & Hygiene Training

The cycle of sickness is broken when families understand the importance of using latrines, washing hands, and keeping themselves and their surroundings clean. Our programs support the provision of handwashing stations and complementary hygiene training to locations that have limited access to these resources.

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Local Story

A Well Brings Water to a Village in Need

Rahim is a housewife who lives in a small village in Bangladesh. Her work begins each day at sunrise when she collects water for the family. The women in her village used to spend hours getting clean water because it was scarce, and from February through June they had to go to another village to have enough. At times, they had to use water from canals and rainwater, resulting in waterborne diseases, diarrhea, and skin conditions.

But now, thanks to the village partnership with World Concern, they installed a deep tube well that provides enough water for twelve families close to home.

The tube well not only provides a solution for drinking water, it irrigates a large section of land where the villagers grow rice and vegetables. During the dry season, the farmers’ resource for water always dried up, but now they use the deep tube well water and have enough to grow their crops.

“We are very grateful to World Concern for supporting this support. As part of our contribution, we purchased a submersible pump that helps us to collect water from this tube well for our farming. We have formed a water user group for future deep tube well maintenance. Our water user group installed a water storage tank for our families, a submersible pump, and an electric motor for regular farming,” Rahim said. “This deep tube well has not only given a solution to our scarcity of drinking water, it has increased our crop yield, saved us from waterborne diseases, and created a nice bond among families in our village who now feel confident that if they collectively try anything they can solve the problem.”

How We Support

When a community partners with us, we meet with its leaders and listen to their goals, identify their needs, and uplift the existing resources to make a plan for sustainable transformation. From leadership training to meeting needs for clean water, adequate nutrition, and medical care, we support the community as it implements sanitation and hygiene practices that support good health, protection and education for their children, and Savings & Loan groups that empower families financially. As sustainable change takes root, real transformation takes place.

Learn more about World Concern's focus areas through the icon links for each area of impact.