By Mtchera Chirwa, AfDB Director for Water Development and Sanitation and Dr. Jemimah Njuki, Director for Gender, Women and Civil Society
Across Africa, water access shapes opportunity. When safe water is close to home, communities are healthier, farmers are more productive, and women and girls gain time to pursue education, work, and leadership in their communities. This year’s World Water Day theme, “Where water flows, equality grows,” highlights the vital link between water security and gender equality.
For many women in rural Mauritania, a new water point means the difference between hours spent collecting water and hours spent building a future.
The African Development Bank Group investment in the “National Integrated Rural Water Sector” project in Mauritania is a showcase of the Bank’s commitment to building resilient infrastructure while ensuring that gender equality remains a cross-cutting priority across all of the Bank’s work.
The National Integrated Rural Water Sector project focuses on delivering to some of the country’s most financially challenged regions, or wilayas, including Gorgol, Brakna, and Tagant, where residents face high poverty rates and limited access to safe water.
This Bank project, through the Bank’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative, with additional financing from the Bank’s African Development Fund, as well as a complimentary grant from Global Environment Facility, and in collaboration with the Government of Mauritania, expanded climate-resilient water infrastructure in these rural communities.
Key investments include 50 new boreholes, 22 solar-powered drinking water systems, and improved sanitation facilities in villages, schools, health centres, and public spaces – in all, bringing reliable water services to an estimated 150,000 people.
This project combines international financing with national expertise to deliver benefits beyond water itself. Collective sanitation infrastructure is significantly improving hygiene conditions in schools and of users of health facilities. This helps ensure girls can attend school consistently, particularly during menstruation, and supports women in their caregiving roles by reducing the health burden associated with inadequate sanitation. New irrigation areas — including 40 hectares developed for women and youth groups — allow rural families to grow crops, generate income, and strengthen food security. We’ve facilitated training for about two dozen women’s associations on contemporary cropping methods, irrigated plot management and participate in local water governance.
When women and girls help shape how water is managed and delivered, communities thrive.
The images in this gallery capture how improved water access is transforming daily life in rural Mauritania — reducing the burden of water collection, strengthening livelihoods, and helping communities build a more inclusive and resilient future. For women. For girls. For all.
Click on below image to view the photo gallery:
