Water: a Women's Issue
In Africa and Asia women are generally responsible for collecting water for their families. On average, in rural Africa, women spend 26% of their time collecting water, which often means having to walk five miles or more to the nearest water source. In the dry season, when water becomes more scarce, this distance can double and it can take hours just to fill up one container as the water slowly filters through the ground.
Women often have to wait in turn to collect water, forcing many to leave home in the middle of the night to reach the source when there is no queue. Then, when they have collected enough water for their family, they will start the long journey back home carrying their heavy water containers.
The tragedy is that the water, which women work so hard to collect, is often dirty, polluted and unsafe to drink. It could come from a river or pond or simply just a hole in the ground where animals drink too. In urban areas, where communities live in slum or squatter settlements without safe water, women either have to walk long distances to collect water, use polluted sources such as factory outlets or buy expensive water from vendors.
As young girls are also expected to help their mothers collect water they are often unable to attend school. The lack of education means that very few women in developing countries are decision-makers. Enabling women’s voices to be heard in decision-making is not easy but a crucial step in development.
Collecting water takes up valuable time and energy, leaving women unable to do household or income generating work. The lack of water impacts on women’s ability to spend time caring for their children. The World Health Organization estimates that African women and children spend up to 40 billion hours every year collecting water.
