Events World Water Day 2026

March 22, 2026

First photo: A woman and a man are laughing at talking while water flows from a hose the woman is holding. Second photo: Text reading "Water for equality means... voice" with blue to pink horizontal gradient background.

Water and Gender

World Water Day, held every year on March 22nd, was instituted in 1993 by the United Nations (UN) to bring awareness to the 2.1 billion people living without access to safe water and to push for action on the global water crisis. Every year since, UN Water, which supports countries on water and sanitation development, sets a theme for World Water Day. The theme helps to highlight particular issues affecting those who lack access to water and to promote dedicated research and solutions.

The theme of World Water Day 2026 is Water and Gender. One core message of this year's theme is "where water flows, equality grows," identifying that improvements to water access also serve as steps toward gender equality. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by water access and sanitation issues for a few key reasons. One is that they usually are responsible for fetching water, which means they spend a large part of their day walking to and from water stations and have severely reduced opportunity to go to school or earn an income. Also, women and girls are more likely to be abused or assaulted when they must use toilets that are in the open or don't provide enough privacy. Additionally, despite having more and distinct needs for water access and sanitation, women are often left out of the conversation when water systems are being discussed and developed.

For these reasons, UN Water advocates for women’s voices and agency to be fully recognized in policy related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. People and agencies that support these goals can help create a safer, healthier, and more equitable world.

J-WAFS research on water and gender equality

Smart Buckets

Smart Bucket sensors combined with testimony from local women in India help to map where women in the region go for water, which sites are used most frequently, and how those decisions are made.

Arsenic Contamination

Arsenic groundwater contamination in Bangladesh causes a myriad of issues. Charlie Harvey's team found that widespread testing with cheap kits improved contamination more than highly accurate but expensive and uncommon testing, a solution that women and girls, as primary water collectors, are instrumental in implementing.

More MIT initiatives on water and gender

Ghanaian girl holds two water bottles: One filled with sediment and the other clean.

Saha Global

Saha Global, a startup co-founded by two MIT alumnae, helps local Ghanaian women start their own water treatment businesses at prices their community can afford.

Diana Yousef and her team pull a net piece off of an evaporative toilet

Cartier Women's Initiative

Evaporative toilets help to improve sanitation and health conditions, something particularly important for women, who are often subject to gender-based violence when they are not afforded enough privacy.

More about World Water Day from the UN

Poster of girl pouring water from a pot into her father's hands. Both are smiling and a faucet is visible.

Where water flows, equality grows.

Learn more about how improvement to water access benefits gender equality.