Readers' photos: water and sanitation – in pictures

Girls carry water from a communal pipe in Mzimkulu valley, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa Photograph: bridgetinnes/Flickr Photograph: Action images Women irrigate their crops in the village of Mapandi in Mozambique. They don't have access to energy for pumping water and therefore have to collect it from distance sources and irrigate their field by hand, which is both time-consuming and inefficient Photograph: Jason Morenikeji/TCEC/RenewableWorld/Flickr Photograph: Jason Morenikeji/TCEC/Action images Women in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo collect water from a protected spring, which prevents water contamination Photograph: Caroline Gluck/Oxfam/Flickr Photograph: Caroline Gluck/Action images A child at a clean water point in Benata, Ethiopia. Such facilities, part of ongoing work to build communities’ resilience, have reduced the impact of drought for many people Photograph: Christian Aid Images / Flickr Photograph: Action images Mathare, Nairobi’s oldest slum, is home to about 500,000 people. It lacks water and sanitation services, making diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid common Photograph: Christian Aid / Flickr Photograph: Action images Women collect water in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where 300,000 Somali refugees live, many of whom have been there for 20 years . The population relies on cattle and agriculture and has therefore been severely affected by the drought Photograph: Pino Gonzalez/Doctors of the World UK Photograph: Pino Gonzalez/Action images Dry ground, in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya. Meeting medical needs is a struggle because the influx of refugees has caused increased demand Photograph: Pino Gonzalez/Doctors of the World UK Photograph: Pino Gonzalez/Action images Fari Awade draws water from a well in the community of Natriguel, Mauritania. A combination of low rainfall and water levels, poor harvests, lack of pasture, high food prices and a drop in remittances from migrants is pushing many areas in west Africa towards a serious food crisis. In Mauritania, Oxfam is working closely with pastoralist communities, providing cattle feed, cash transfers, refurbished wells, water and sanitation programmes, and a co-op vegetable gardens programme for 1,300 women Photograph: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam Photograph: Pablo Tosco/Action images A girl stands in a river in Sipacapa, Guatemala. Independent tests show the river has been poisoned by the Canadian-owned Marlin goldmine, which has been accused of causing environmental damage and adversely affecting the local population's health Photograph: Sean Hawkey / Flickr Photograph: Action images Workers stand at the edge of a water tank in Buenos Aires village, Santa Barbara, Honduras Photograph: Sean Hawkey / Flickr Photograph: Action images Dawn on the border of the Juma reserve in the Brazilian Amazon Photograph: Neil Palmer/CIAT/Flickr Photograph: Neil Palmer/Action images A vegetable farmer with his watering cans in Ghana's Upper West region, which has suffered failed rains and rising temperatures Photograph: Neil Palmer/CIAT/Flickr Photograph: Neil Palmer/Action images In Jamam camp, South Sudan, women spend several hours a day collecting water, often standing in baking heat. Since the start of 2012, nearly 30,000 refugees from the conflict in Sudan’s Blue Nile region have arrived in Jamam, a village in the remote Upper Nile state. Oxfam’s team in South Sudan is providing clean water, public health services, and sanitation in the new camp and its environs Photograph: Alun McDonald/Oxfam/Flickr Photograph: Alun McDonald/Action images