A Glimpse To Women And Water Crisis

Women And Water Crisis

PARISMITA GOSWAMI

“Four billion people — almost two-thirds of the world’s population — experience severe water scarcity for at least one month each year.“

There is nothing more essential to survival than water. Yet water is the most controversial natural resource of all.

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Around 450 million children live in regions of high water issues, and they do not even have enough to meet their daily requirements. The water crisis has become more profound than ever.

Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2030) promises clean water and sanitation for all, ensuring availability and management in all parts of the world. But, how far has it been successful along with SDGs 3 and 4, still remains a question.

Today, fetching water is a part of gender inequality, poverty, cleanliness, sanitation, etc.

The Crisis In Brief

I was reading the story of Aaisa and Saina, who are sisters and come from a low-income family in Haryana (A place where literacy hovered around 26.70 % when the last Census (2011) was taken). Only one of the sisters is allowed to study and the other to fetch water.

Every day millions of girls and women in developed and underdeveloped countries clump with matkas and big plastic cans on their heads to bring water. Carrying water and walking miles to bring water is physically and mentally challenging and draining. Yet, prevalent.

The research was conducted by Milken Institute, School of Public Health at George Washington University in 24 sub-Saharan African countries- it suggests that households where a family member had to spend more than 30 minutes collecting water in all the countries. Women, ranging from 46 percent in Liberia to 90 percent in Côte d’Ivoire, are the ones who collect the water, where there exists a wide gender gap of 62 percent for girls versus 38 percent for boys.

Women are considered to be the family’s sole caretakers, responsible for cooking, cleaning, feeding, sanitation, etc. In many countries, this stereotypical notion still remains, a male member is a sole breadwinner. But, is this a choice or a stigma?

Today, women worldwide spend a coordinated 200 million hours collecting water. Women and girls daily spend 266 million hours finding a place to go and find water. And this is the major of their rising health-related problems.

They must move from one place to another without thinking about their safety and health. Many girls have to skip classes and school to fulfill their promised duty. Do they have a choice? I guess not.

Bottom Line

“In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls mostly perform water collection duties among households without running water. In rural India, women can walk an average of 16 kilometers per day to collect water. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 31 percent of people — usually women — retrieve their water from sources that are thirty minutes away from their homes. In Paraguay, among households for which water is collected away from home, women and girls comprise 57.9 percent of those obtaining water.“

– Women’s Water Insecurity Is a Global Health Crisis.

Women and girls endure an inconsequential burden. And therefore, it is imperative to obliterate the existing women and water crisis. Even the global community has been working to address the issue. And to understand better gender goals bisecting with water predicament as the driving problem even today.

The respective states’ governments should immediately take collective and sustainable measures to curb this problem. Without economic planning and engineering, such sensitive issues will never stop steering up. But, it’s time, this comes to an end.

[Images from different sources]

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