Community water security - UN-Water

Water for Life
5
Water security improves community health
To ensure access to enough,
safe water it is important to
understand how to conserve,
protect, store, and treat
water. But understanding is
not enough. The community
must be motivated to change
what does not work and
to make these changes
sustainable through community
organization and action.
In raising community
awareness, it is
important to
understand the root
causes of problems.
Many illnesses related
to water security come
from poverty and
exploitation.
Raise community awareness of water problems
Most people already know what their problems are. A woman who carries water long
distances every day does not need to be told that carrying water is hard work. But she
may not feel that she has the power to make her work easier.
A community water program can create a shared understanding among a group of
people. If people see water security as a community problem, they can also see that
they may have the power together to make change. This is called “raising community
awareness.”
On the next page we share the sad story of a young boy, Timothy, who died from
a lack of water security. This story is followed by the “Chain of Causes” activity. This
activity may be useful to raise awareness in your community.
A shared understanding of a problem can help people begin to think about a shared solution.