Clean water provision is not only a persisting but even a growing problem, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Lack of access to clean water has many negative social impacts, including on children’s school attendance. Eelke de Jong, member of our scientific advisory board, and his colleagues Ahmad Komarulzaman and Jeroen Smits have published a paper on this topic. They made a research on water provision and the effects on primary school enrolment and absenteeism in Indonesia. The article has been originally published in the Journal of Water and Health and is open access under the license CC BY 4.0