Access to safe water and sanitation is an internationally recognised human right (UN, 2010). However, it is a source of gross global inequality and an inherently political issue, guiding geopolitical strategy and a major factor in conflicts around the world (UN, 2017).

Climate change brings higher temperatures, extreme weather events and altered ecosystems; the associated water scarcity exacerbates the fragility of these complex geopolitical interplays (Salameh et al, 2021) and women’s health is disproportionally impacted (Climate + Women Nexus Report, 2018).

Annually, 16.6 million women give birth without adequate water and sanitation and unclean births lead to over a million deaths (Water Aid 2023). In Gaza in 2022, only 1% of the population had access to safe drinking water (World Bank, 2022). Since the October 2023 invasion, that water supply has been further reduced by 94% (The Lancet, 2024). Today, 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza (NPR, 2024) are confronted by sky-rocketing maternal, foetal and neonatal mortality rates, in a country whose maternal mortality rate was already double that of the UK’s (World Bank, 2020).

Alix Bullock,

Specialty Training Registrar in Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Yorkshire & The Humber