Dirty water more deadly for women than HIV, breast cancer

Women draw drinking water next to the well in the Al-Wazia directorate of Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz February 12, 2015. Researchers say diseases spread by unclean water and poor sanitation are the fifth biggest killers of women around the world. Photo by Mohamed al-Sayaghi/REUTERS.

Dirty water and poor sanitation kill more women across the globe than diabetes, HIV or breast cancer, researchers said this week.

Diseases linked to the lack of clean water and toilets kill nearly 800,000 women worldwide every year, making them the fifth leading cause of death for women, according to WaterAid, an international non-governmental organization.

“This completely unacceptable situation affects women and girls’ education, their health, their dignity and ultimately, in too many cases, results in an early and needless death,” WaterAid CEO Barbara Frost said in a statement.

More than 370 million women do not have access to clean drinking water and more than one billion live without access to a safe toilet, according to WaterAid.

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