Improved Laundry and Hygiene

Laundry is a daily necessity for households worldwide. In many rural and low-resource settings, washing clothes is still done manually, often requiring significant time, repetitive physical effort, and long distances to collect water. The work is predominantly carried out by women and girls, and in some contexts by informal laundry workers, under conditions that can lead to physical strain and health risks.

Laundry practices are closely connected to water access, infrastructure design, product availability, and local climate conditions. Limited water supply, inadequate washing spaces, poorly adapted tools, and unsafe detergent use can intensify the burden. These constraints are not isolated; they are part of broader water and livelihood systems.

Despite its scale and impact, laundry rarely receives structured attention within water, hygiene, or gender programming. As a result, improvements tend to be fragmented, and opportunities for coordinated innovation and infrastructure design are often missed.

This dossier brings together blogs, videos, and field experiences related to laundry. It aims to document practical insights, highlight emerging approaches, and contribute to a more integrated understanding of laundry within water and development contexts.