How Fair is Fashion's Water Footprint?

Africa is a rising star of global textile and clothing production, spurred on by reformed trade agreements, tax incentives, targeted aid programmes, and the cheapest labour costs on earth.

Water Witness International’s new report How fair is fashion’s water footprint? reveals that the production of clothing for high street and online brands in Europe, the UK and the USA is causing devastating pollution of Africa’s rivers through the discharge of untreated wastewater and lax environmental enforcement. The study also finds that companies are failing to provide factory workers, around 80% of whom are women, with access to safe water, washing facilities and toilets, undermining their dignity, wellbeing, and health.

The report highlights the positive impacts of fashion sourcing in Africa where it can provide much needed employment and export revenue. It advocates not for an end to fashion sourcing in Africa, but critically for action and assurance that sourcing and production of goods across the continent are based on sustainable resource use, decent working conditions and basic principles of social justice.