Lifting The Water Weight Off Women's Shoulders

The Quest for Water

In 2010, it was announced that MDG 7.C had been met 5 years early: The proportion of people without access to improved water sources had been halved! Crucial infrastructure like boreholes and piped water act as 'protected sources' of potable water. While we should celebrate this milestone, we must also remember that global statistics cloud disparity between regions. And as we established in last week's post, the burden of water collection falls largely on women and children. 13.54 million women and 3.36 million children in sub-Saharan Africa still need to take long journeys of more than 30 minutes to reach these 'protected sources', sometimes making this trip numerous times a day (Figure 1).

 

Figure 1: (source)

Women are expected to juggle productive, reproductive and community management roles in society simultaneously, resulting in a much more constrained labour time and flexibility. The gendered division of labour is rooted in patriarchal cultural norms that impose such competing claims on women’s limited time, ultimately restricting them to the domestic sphere. 

Moreover, this water journey is often not simple: After reaching the water source, they likely need to wait in queues to fill up their water cans (Figure 2). Finally, with the 70 pounds of water carried on their backs, they have to venture through uneven terrains laced with obstacles like fences and thorn bushes to return home. These precarious journeys also put women at risk of sexual violence. With how arduous water collection is, it is unsurprising that it negatively impacts their health. Fatigue and musculoskeletal, early degenerative bone and soft tissue damage are common detrimental effects on women’s health. What emerges is a downward spiral of time poverty, where the strenuous and time-consuming task of water collection leaves little opportunity for them to participate in leisure activities, market-based work or formal education.

Figure 2: People waiting for water in Tanzania (source)

The burden of water collection starts young. Girls often have to forgo their education to aid women in fetching water or they shoulder caretaking responsibilities for younger siblings in the absence of their mothers. Young girls surveyed in Ethiopia lamented the impacts these responsibilities have on their ability to succeed in school. Ironically, it has also been found that some children in Malawi take on load-carrying jobs in order to pay for school fees. 

How can we improve this dire situation?

Innovative solutions rise to the challenge of increasing access to safe water and relieving the burden of women and children. Solar powered water pumps in Tharaki Nithi, Kenya bring water sources closer to 40,000 villagers, while skirting around poor rural electrification by harnessing a renewable resource. No longer does Kaari, one of the villagers, have to travel 12km to a nearby river to collect water. Instead, precious time is better spent on tending to her crops. Such innovations also challenge mainstream development rhetorics by exhibiting technology leapfrogging in being early adopters of cleaner energy solutions, without the limitations of having to integrate it into existing energy systems.

While these infrastructural improvements are laudable, funding and maintaining these might be problematic: These solar powered water pumps cost the county government $80,000USD. It is hence also worth considering other innovations like the Hippo Roller: A water drum that not only can carry 5 times more water, but is also wheeled, therefore relieving the physical strain on women and children's bodies and helping to save time. However, effectiveness of the Hippo Roller is not guaranteed - Oftentimes, women face uneven terrains in their journeys to fetch water, which would render the Hippo Roller useless and even more of a hindrance. Still, for those whose water journeys do permit it, this is definitely a valuable innovation.

Figure 3: Women using the Hippo Roller to collect water (source)

Concluding Thoughts

While there are significant variations in water collection practices across 24 sub-Saharan countries, it is ultimately incontrovertible that women and children disproportionately bear the burdens of water collection. Understanding the contexts and challenges of this responsibility is thus crucial in aiming to relieve these water-weights off their shoulders.