Women and Water
In the blog today we’re continuing our week of action on water by discussing the issues surrounding women and water. Also today we’ve posted an article on the Deleterious Effects of Maternal Malnutrition which links in nicely with our theme of the day on women. Also up today is The Lancet Digest just to give you a quick overview of what’s in the Journal this week and our weekly podcast to keep you updated on The Lancet Student and what’s being going on. Hope you all have a great weekend and don’t forget to sign the letter to Gordon Brown about improving water and sanitation - its being delivered next week, so please do hurry!
Picture courtesy of End Water Poverty
Water is a particularly important subject to consider in relation to women. Lack of access to water has a disproportionate effect on women compared to men. Women tend to be the people who run the household and therefore they are the people who have to fetch the water, which can take up to five hours per day. But the problems with lack of access to water and sanitation go much deeper than this. Women have to care for their children whilst also using water for cooking, cleaning and maintaining sanitation for themselves and their family. Water therefore consistently plays a part in the daily lives of women. Lack of access to water means that women have a large increased demand on their time which leaves less time to care for their family or to be economically productive.
If children become ill due to poor water supply and sanitation, it is women who have to take care of them, putting yet further demands on their time. In addition to this, having better access to sanitation would make the environment safer for women, especially at night, when women are particularly vulnerable to attack if they are using facilities in deserted areas far from their home. Also improved sanitation would go a long way to improving the privacy and dignity of women.
The fact that women were largely left out of the development of access to water and sanitation and that their needs were not fully considered has been highlighted by a number of groups. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development’s third principle states that ‘women should play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water’. It emphasises that positive policies to address women’s needs and to equip and empower women to participate at all levels in water resource programmes, including decision making and implementation in ways defined by women.
Following this, there was a Beijing Declaration which encouraged the promotion of knowledge and sponsorship of research on the role of women, especially rural and indigenous women, in irrigation, watershed management and sanitation, focusing especially on knowledge and experience. Finally was the mistrial session at the International Conference on Fresh Water in 2001. This emphasised that a particiory approach with men and women having an equal voice is vital to managing sustainable use of water and its developments. The role of women needed to be strengthened.
So the fact that women needed to be involved in water and sanitation management was clear to those heading up the movement and but the need was also becoming apparent within communities. In Burkina Faso when women were in charge of irrigated plots the productivity was equally as good if not better than those under the management of men. These women were delighted with their ability to contribute to the household. In Indonesia village leaders discovered that women gave more constructive feedback on water systems than men, leading to better outcomes for the community, this was because the womene water and sanitation system.
All of this shows that gender needs to be mainstreamed into the water and sanitation policy and management. The impacts on women, as well as men, of legislation, policies and programmes needs to be assessed and both sexes involved in the design, education, implementation and monitoring. This will go some way to ensuring that the equal benefits are gained and that inequality is not perpetuated.
When resources are scarce it is those at the lower end of the power spectrum that have to go without. The poorest women and children are at the bottom of the power ladder, so it is these people that would be advocated for and protected by ensuring gender was central to all water and sanitation activities.
To find out more:
http://www.womenforwater.org/openbaar/index.php?paginaID=1
http://www.wateryear2003.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2543&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html