Campaign launched to protect lives of new mothers and babies with clean water pledge
A new campaign has been launched calling on world leaders to commit to ensuring that every health centre worldwide has clean water, and decent sanitation to protect women giving birth around the world.
In a video and petition launching the “Time to Deliver” project, the international charity WaterAid notes that every two seconds somewhere in the world, a woman gives birth in a health facility without clean water, decent toilets or basic hygiene. That can be the the difference between life and death.
The campaign, backed by public figures including singer Beverley Knight, presenter Myleene Klass and journalist Yomi Adegoke, calls on world leaders to use the upcoming United Nations (UN) Water Conference in December to ensure that every health centre worldwide has clean water, decent sanitation and proper hygiene facilities.
Without water to wash hands, clean instruments or keep wards sanitary, mothers and newborns are exposed to infections that should be easily preventable. Each year more than a million women and babies die from infections linked to childbirth – tragedies that health workers say could often be avoided with the most basic infrastructure.
The campaign comes against a backdrop of cuts to aid funding from Donald Trump in the US, the UK and across Europe – cuts which could leave millions at risk from the impacts of reduced health projects and the climate crisis.
In the launch video, one mother described the moment before giving birth as standing “between life and death.”
“The worry remains whether I will survive or if this baby I’m waiting for will be alive,” she says. “My heart hurts. We have a big problem here with water. You can catch diseases in an unclean place. My child shouldn’t face the problems we are facing.”
The campaign urges governments to put women’s voices at the centre of maternal healthcare planning, while funding the infrastructure that health workers say they desperately need. That means investing in clean water systems, building safe toilets and handwashing facilities and ensuring healthcare workers are trained to provide hygienic care as a routine part of national health services. It also means setting clear standards so every health facility can guarantee safe, dignified care.
For health workers on the front lines, the issue is painfully simple in that no woman should fear giving birth because there is not water in the room. Campaigners say the solutions exist, but what’s missing is political will.
Elizabeth, 63, supported her daughter-in-law, Constance, while she gave birth at a health centre in Zambia without clean water.
“If I met our president, I would tell him about the trouble we have of lack of water at health centres, ” she said. “I will tell him of how much women are suffering, how they walk a distance to access water and how they sleep on the cold floor. I will ask him to immediately do something about it.”
Sign the WaterAid “Time to Deliver” petition here
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
