Everyday Essentials

Clean water, soap, and a safe place to wash are not luxuries. Design a solution that makes the basics available to everyone.

2 billionpeople worldwide lack safely managed drinking water at home

1 in 4people lack access to basic hygiene facilities

SDG 6calls for water and sanitation for all

50%of childhood illness in some regions is linked to poor water and hygiene

About this challenge

Clean water, soap, and a safe place to wash are not luxuries: they're the foundation of health and dignity. But not everyone has them.

This challenge asks you to make everyday essentials available to everyone in your town.

Handwashing is one of the cheapest, most effective health measures that exists, but it needs water, soap, and a place to do it.

Essentials are also about dignity: being able to be clean changes how people feel, learn, work, and connect.

Think about

Question 1Does everyone in your town have what they need to stay clean and healthy?

Question 2Who might quietly go without: travellers, people without homes, remote families?

Question 3Could essentials be provided through business rather than charity?

Question 4Could public spaces in your town include what people need?

Question 5What essentials do your town's conditions make harder to get?

Question 6Could your solution preserve people's dignity as well as their health?

Question 7How might your town's quirks make this easier, or harder?

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