亚开行-分担责任：与水社区一起发起洗衣运动（英）

SHARETHE LOADLaunching the Laundry Movement with the Water Community23About 4 billion people worldwide wash their clothes by hand, which is nearly 50% of the planet’s population.1DID YOU KNOW?Laundry is the simple yet necessary act of washing clothes, a chore so mundane that it is often overlooked. However, as unassuming as it can be, laundry has far-reaching impacts. For many people around the world, primarily women and girls, laundry is still done by hand. Despite progress with the kinds of washing machines available and a growing laundry care industry (valued globally at $177.85 billion in 2024),2 there has been hardly any widespread change in the way clothes are cleaned for years. In countless households, especially in rural and urban poor communities in Asia and the Pacific, women can spend up to 20% of their active hours solely on manual laundry—and this is even higher for areas where access to water is limited. This forgotten burden usually requires carrying hefty bundles of clothes to distant water sources (or conversely, fetching heavy containers of water in slippery paths), in addition to the constant scrubbing, rinsing, lifting, bending, drying, and folding. This arduous process can lead to chronic pain, mental pressure, and increased exposure to health and safety risks. Moreover, it comes at the expense of time potentially spent for more valuable pursuits and better well-being. Machine washing, on the other hand, also has its own challenges relating to accessibility, affordability, water consumption, and energy use and resulting carbon emissions. The time is ripe for a global conversation. The world has to clean up its act now, from addressing the gaps in research and policies to introducing more initiatives that prioritize innovation and multisector solutions. WHY LAUNDRY? AN UNTAPPED OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGECould laundry be the next breakthrough for people, planet, and progress in Asia and the Pacific?2 This market size only covers laundry detergents (powder, liquid, fabric softeners, and others). 1 Stellar Market Research. 2024. Laundry Detergent Market: Global Market Outlook and Forecast (2025-2032) Trends, Statistics, Dynamics, Segmentation by Product, Application, Distribution Channel, and Region.45IMPROVEDLAUNDRYWATERINNOVATIONSEMPLOYMENTHOUSEHOLDECONOMYENVIRONMENTENERGYWELL-BEINGHEALTHTransmission ofdisease vectorsTimeDuringwashingHealthclinicsHouseholdHard laborExposure tochemicalsChemical detergentsPreserving clothesand textilesLaundry micro,small, and medium-sizedenterprisesSustainableenergy sourcesCarbonemissionsCold vs. warmwashingShredding of microfibers Laundry and water are deeply intertwined, from water availability and quality to sanitation and hygiene. Manual washing needs about 20 liters per wash,3 which can be reduced with proper tools and detergents, while machine washing requires about 75 liters per load.4 A 2010 journal article estimated that about 20 trillion liters of water are used globally for domestic washin