Women and Water
In most societies around the world, women bear the primary responsibility of managing the water supply, sanitation, and health for their household. Women collect water not only for drinking, but also for food preparation, care of domestic animals, personal hygiene, taking care of the sick, cleaning, and waste disposal. Learn more about how this responsibility impacts women’s every day lives.
- Often, the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities near home forces girls to miss out on opportunities to go to school, learn marketable skills, and fully participate in their communities.
- African and Asian women walk an average of 6 kilometres each trip in order to fetch water. Forty billion hours each year are spent collecting water in sub-Saharan Africa – this is equal to a year’s labour for the entire workforce of France.
- When women and girls travel long distances on foot to fetch water, they may suffer chronic damage or deformities of the spine from the heavy weight of the water, or from falling on unsafe paths or in the dark.
- In many places, if women don't have a latrine, the only time they can defecate is after dark. In addition to the discomfort caused by the long wait, this can cause serious illness. There is also a risk of harassment and assault during the night-time walk.
- Up to 50% of all girls drop out of school due to the absence of latrines. In fact, the lack of safe, separate and private sanitation facilities in schools is one of the main factors preventing girls from attending school, particularly when menstruating. Where there is no separate toilet for girls, parents are often unwilling to allow their daughters to attend school.
- When appropriate sanitations facilities are in place, girls’ enrollment in school immediately increases. A recent survey conducted by UNICEF in Bangladesh shows that the provision of appropriate sanitation facilities in Bangladeshi schools led to an 11% increase in girls’ enrollment. In Alwar district in India, a school sanitation program increased girls’ enrollment by one third and improved academic performance for boys and girls by 25%.
- Even in some urban centres, where there is the capacity to bring pipe-borne water into homes, aging infrastructure and water privatization still force women to walk long distances to collect water.
- When distance, time constraints or economic factors restrict women’s access to water, they often must accept lower-quality water, which is worrisome, considering 80% of all illnesses are transmitted by contaminated water.
- In short, the above-mentioned factors increase women’s inequality by continuing the cycle of illiteracy and poverty.
