19 March 2026 - Six-year-old Laisani collects rainwater from a tap connected to her family’s water tank in Nataleira, a coastal village in Fiji. She fills plastic bottles and carries them home, where the water is boiled before drinking. Rainwater is her family’s main source of safe water — and ensuring it is clean enough to use is part of everyday life.
Worldwide, 1.8 billion people still do not have drinking water on premises, and in two out of three households, water collection is primarily women’s responsibility. Time spent fetching and managing water can mean missed school, health risks and fewer opportunities later in life.
This is why the global water crisis is also a gender equality challenge.
World Water Day 2026, marked on 22 March, focuses on safe water and sanitation as human rights and critical enablers of gender equality. When safe water flows close to home, girls are more likely to stay in school, women gain time to work and participate in community life, and families are healthier and safer.
Yet women remain underrepresented in decisions about water services — even though they are often the most affected by them. The campaign theme, “Where water flows, equality grows,” calls for women and girls to be centred in water solutions – as users, leaders and professionals, so they can play an equitable role alongside men to ensure water-related services meet everyone’s needs.
At UN Headquarters in New York, this year’s World Water Day celebration will also launch the UN World Water Development Report 2026: Water for all people: Equal rights and opportunities, that presents data and practical pathways to advance gender equality across the water sector.
Water connects us all. This World Water Day, we invite you to share what water for equality means in your own life, and to help build a future where access to water opens doors to health, dignity and opportunity for everyone.
Learn more, share your story and take part at: www.worldwaterday.org #WorldWaterDay