In my previous post, I looked at the inequality in the use and access to groundwater resources between men and women. This week, I will focus on the collection of water and how this affects women in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), physically and mentally. Restricted infrastructures and access to reliable water sources (e.g. piped water systems) results in the burden of extensive travelling to collect water; unfortunately, this responsibility usually falls on women and girls. Indeed, it is estimated that every day women and girls spend around 200 million hours collecting water (UNICEF, 2016). Considering that more than two-thirds of those living in SSA have to leave their houses to collect water, it is integral that we understand how this burden disproportionately affects women (Graham et al, 2016).
What are the effects on women?
Across SSA, it is primarily women and girls who bear the brunt of water collection. A study carried out across 24 SSA countries by Graham et al (2016) found that it is adult women who are the primary collectors of water when spending more than 30 minutes to do so. Similarly, girls (< 15 years old) were more likely to be responsible for collecting water than boys of the same age (Graham et al, 2016). Table 1 illustrates how the responsibility of water collection is placed upon women for both urban and rural areas across SSA, with the exception of Niger. In turn, there are many effects that women or girls will endure as a result of this, such as: long-term physical health risks, time poverty and gender-based violence (Van Howeling, 2012).
 |
| Table 1: Water collection characteristics for 24 SSA countries |
Physical health risks:
The journey that women or girls make to collect water is often to unpiped water sources and involves carrying heavy loads of water in buckets or barrels. As well as experiencing the physical pain and fatigue from carrying these heavy loads, women can develop long-term health risks such as bone damage, arthritis and musculoskeletal damage (Graham et al, 2016; Hunter et al, 2010). For mothers, physical difficulties lie in the walking of long distances to collect water with a child (often placed on their backs) whilst carrying water (Varicknickal et al 2016). The taxing journeys that women make to collect water can also affect their nutritional deficiencies; rural villagers in Mozambique would only cook once a day with little water in order to ration what they had collected (Cairncross and Cuff, 1987).
Time poverty:
Time poverty can be defined as the loss of time for rest or leisure after accounting for the time spent on activities such as collecting water (Blackden and Wodon, 2006). Whilst in rural areas of SSA it is the long distances which consume a lot of time for women, in urban areas of SSA it is often the waiting time in lines which can be equally as time-consuming (Demie et al, 2016; Geere and Cortobius, 2017). As a result of this time spent collecting water, the involvement of women in employment, family life and their opportunities to socialise or rest are reduced significantly (Tucker et al, 2014; Cairncross and Cuff, 1987; Blackden and Wodon, 2006). Time poverty also affects young girls and their attendance in schools; one study found that girls as young as 5 are taken out of school to help their mothers collect water (Nauges and Strand, 2015). Similarly, children who are older are also pulled out of school to take care of younger siblings while their mothers collect water (Koolwal and Van de Walle, 2013). Those who do go to school, whilst also bearing the brunt of water collection, experience difficulties in concentrating and fatigue which frequently leads to the drop out of school at an early age (Graham et al, 2016). In turn, time poverty caused by water collection impacts the education of girls and their future prospects, creating a dangerous cycle of poverty.
Gender-based violence:
Women and girls are exposed to the threat of gender-based violence too; when travelling long distances to collect water, there is a risk of physical and sexual violence for women (UN Women, 2014). In order to avoid long waiting times, some women collect water at night which puts them at a higher risk of sexual abuse and harassment (Varickanickal et al, 2016). This risk of gender-based violence mentally and emotionally affects young girls in particular by inducing feelings of anxiety, stress and fear when collecting water (Sommer et al, 2015).
For the future
One solution to reduce time poverty and the other risks associated with water collection is the improvement in the provision of water infrastructure for women. The study looked at in last week's post in Ethiopia demonstrates how the improvements to groundwater infrastructure in their kebele have reduced their water collection times significantly and thus benefitted women physically and economically (Nigussie et al, 2018). Although a reduction in water collection times is not necessarily enough to increase women's economic productivity, this is certainly a step in the right direction to improve the physical and mental health of women and their development.
Comments
Post a Comment