Debates on water in Africa often rest on assumptions that the evidence does not support. RFLD’s policy brief, Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, brings together the data and the law needed to test them. Here are six common myths, and what the facts show.
Myth 1: “The Maputo Protocol says nothing about water”
Fact: Article 15(a) of the Maputo Protocol obliges States Parties to take appropriate measures to “provide women with access to clean drinking water”. It appears under the heading “Right to Food Security”, which may explain why it is often overlooked. The obligation is binding on every State that has ratified the Protocol.
Myth 2: “Reservations have weakened Article 15”
Fact: The African Commission’s 2026 Advocacy Framework for Withdrawing Reservations lists nine States with reservations or declarations on the Protocol. None of them has a reservation on Article 15. For every State Party, the article applies in full. RFLD’s country briefs on lifting the reservations explain where reservations do apply.
Myth 3: “Most people now have water”
Fact: It depends on the measure. Benin’s national rural water agency reports a rural service coverage rate of 82.1% at the end of 2024. That rate counts infrastructure. By the international measure of safely managed drinking water, only 17.7% of Benin’s population, and 6.7% of its rural population, was covered in 2024.
Ghana shows a similar gap. Basic drinking water reached 86% in 2020, yet safely managed drinking water stood at 42.9% in 2024. Across sub-Saharan Africa, only 31.7% of people used safely managed drinking water in 2024. In rural Middle Africa, the figure was 2.8%. The Africa Water Vision 2063 itself notes that “only about half of Africa’s population has access to safe water”.
Myth 4: “Fetching water is shared within families”
Fact: The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme found that in households without water on the premises, women and girls aged 15 and over are mainly responsible for collection in 7 out of 10 cases. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are four times as likely as men to fetch water.
The imbalance starts young. A 2016 study of 24 sub-Saharan African countries found that girls made up 62% of the children who collect water. In all 12 countries where household members spent at least 10 minutes a day on water collection, women and girls carried the larger share.
Myth 5: “Water is a technical issue, not a rights issue”
Fact: The UN General Assembly recognised the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right in 2010. The African Commission adopted Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa in 2019. Guideline 22.1 states that “States shall take action to reduce the disproportionate burden and amount of time women bear in water collection.”
Safety is part of the right too. A 2023 global review of 18 studies, 13 of them from sub-Saharan Africa, found that the most common link was an “increased risk of sexual and physical violence for women who walked long distances to access water”. Engineering alone does not make a water point safe for the women who use it.
Myth 6: “Gender targets already exist, so the job is done”
Fact: Targets on paper often go unmet. Burkina Faso has a 30% national target for women in water management bodies. Women hold 14.86% of those seats. In Nigeria, quotas exist for some community water committees, yet women’s roles remain “peripheral or unpaid”, according to UNICEF. Ghana’s 2007 National Water Policy calls for more women at all levels but sets no number.
Money tells the same story. RFLD’s brief found no water-specific gender budget tracker covering West African countries. Without one, no one can say how much of a water budget reaches women.
From myths to action
Correcting these myths is the first step towards better policy. RFLD’s brief asks States to report on Article 15 in every periodic report to the African Commission, with sex-disaggregated data. It also asks for binding quotas of at least 40% women in water governance bodies, for a WASH gender budget marker and for a module on safety at water points in national household surveys. Each of these measures would replace an assumption with evidence.
Share these facts with journalists and decision-makers. Each one comes from an official source or peer-reviewed research cited in the brief.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
