đ This fact may be outdated
The statistic originates from the UNDP 2006 Human Development Report, which found women in rural Senegal spent 15-17 hours per week collecting water. The specific figure '17.5 hours' appears to be an average of that range. This data is nearly 20 years old. Since 2006, Senegal has made significant progress in water infrastructure - by 2024, 85% of the population has access to basic water services (up from much lower rates in 2006). While water collection remains a burden for women in some rural areas, the specific 17.5-hour figure is outdated.
Senegalese women spend an average of 17.5 hours a week just collecting water.
The Hidden Hours: Water Collection in Rural Senegal
In 2006, the United Nations published a startling statistic: women in rural Senegal were spending 15 to 17 hours every single week just collecting water. That's more than two full workdays devoted to a task that people in developed nations accomplish by turning a tap.
The same survey, which covered 177 countries, found similar timeframes in Mozambique and Eastern Uganda. These weren't outliersâthey represented a massive global problem affecting hundreds of millions of women.
Why Water Collection Falls to Women
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls bear primary responsibility for water collection in nearly 80% of households without direct access. This isn't biologyâit's cultural expectation. While men handle other labor, water collection becomes unpaid work that consumes enormous chunks of women's lives.
The numbers are staggering: African women collectively spend 40 billion hours per year collecting water. That's equivalent to the entire workforce of France working for a full year, except it's unpaid labor that prevents women from education, income-generating work, and even proper childcare.
The Ripple Effects
Those 15-17 weekly hours weren't just about carrying water. They represented:
- Lost education: Girls missing school to help their mothers
- Economic opportunity cost: Time that could be spent on productive work or small businesses
- Health risks: Carrying 40-pound water containers over long distances, often while pregnant or nursing
- Safety concerns: Walking alone to distant water sources, sometimes before dawn or after dark
Has Anything Changed?
The good news: yes. By 2024, 85% of Senegal's population has access to basic water services, up dramatically from 2006 levels. Infrastructure projects have brought wells, boreholes, and piped water to many communities that once relied on distant sources.
The bad news: that remaining 15% still faces the same burden. In remote rural areas, women continue spending hours each day on water collection. And even "basic" access doesn't mean water in your homeâit might mean a well a kilometer away instead of five kilometers.
Why This Matters
Water collection time is often invisible in development statistics, categorized as "household work" rather than recognized as the infrastructure failure it represents. When international organizations finally measured it, the scale of the problem shocked policymakers.
Every hour spent collecting water is an hour stolen from human potentialâfrom girls who could be learning calculus, women who could be starting businesses, mothers who could be with their children. The 2006 survey made this loss visible and quantifiable, driving investment in water infrastructure across Africa.
Today's challenge isn't just building wellsâit's ensuring the last 15% aren't forgotten, and that "basic access" evolves into the kind of convenient, safe water supply that developed nations take for granted.