Climate finance must prioritize women’s access to water

200 million hours. That’s how much time women and girls collectively spend fetching water annually — the equivalent of 100,000 people working full-time jobs for an entire year. If fetching water were an occupation, it would be one of the largest unpaid workforces in the world, staffed almost entirely by women. Yet instead of generating wages or building businesses, these hours vanish into a hidden economy of unpaid labor that sustains households while holding women back.

Every lost hour is an hour a girl cannot sit in a classroom, a woman cannot grow her farm, a mother cannot take part in decisions that shape her community or even claim the simple dignity of rest. Time spent hauling buckets is time taken away from food production, entrepreneurship and leadership.  In rural economies, where agriculture is the backbone of food and income, women’s absence from the fields translates into reduced yields and entrenched poverty. Two hundred million hours is not just time wasted, it is stolen potential — stolen GDP, stolen innovations and stolen leadership.

This toll is not inevitable. With the right investments, the hours spent carrying water could be converted into hours of cultivation, enterprise and leadership. Climate finance that prioritizes women’s access to productive water — used for irrigating crops, watering livestock and sustaining income-generating activities — is therefore key.  When women gain reliable access to water, they do more than save time, they grow food, expand livelihoods and strengthen the resilience of entire communities.

The return on investing in water is measurable and immediate. For every US$1 invested in water and sanitation, studies show a return of up to US$5 through higher productivity and lower health costs. Reliable irrigation can increase yields by up to 30%, improving household food security and incomes.