Breathe
By Loreley Maldonado
Alone or in small groups, they are seen walking at a hurried pace, carrying containers to be filled with water and crossing sidewalks, cobblestone paths, hills and plains. Women and girls are responsible for fetching water in seven out of ten households worldwide, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Carrying water home is women's work, and a latent danger for mothers and daughters.
In this context, to speak of water scarcity is also to speak of gender. In the vast majority of countries in the world, especially in underdeveloped countries, women bear the burden of collecting water for households that do not have a local supply. Many walk for hours to reach springs, wells, dams, or wait for drinking water pipes to reach their communities, even after hours, making them vulnerable to any danger, ranging from accidents, robberies, kidnappings, rapes, and even femicides.
In Mexico, the outlook is no more encouraging. The lack of services and infrastructure to bring the vital liquid to the most remote communities disproportionately affects women and girls, who face greater risks such as harassment and violence, in addition to health, because they have to use unsanitary and remote bathrooms and do not have access to drinking water.
Women and water was one of the main topics addressed during the World Water Week conferences in Stockholm, Sweden, an event I had the opportunity to attend last week and witness the relevance of women and girls in the management of this resource.
Unfortunately, the indicators used for global monitoring of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services are limited and there is insufficient information on their breakdown by gender, age, disability or other individual characteristics.
According to the International Water Management Institute, women and girls spend approximately 200 million hours each day collecting water for domestic use around the world.
Because the data are not specific and do not represent the real gender problem that develops behind the carrying of water by women and girls, the authority has stepped aside, arguing that it lacks elements that would justify implementing strategies to minimize the risk that this situation represents for them.
Fortunately, organizations, companies and funds committed to social and environmental issues have set an example in empowering women and girls. It was in the Swedish capital that the Water Justice Fund, the first pooled funding mechanism that puts women and girls at the forefront of climate action, was launched. The fund is driven by Simavi and Women Win, organizations whose mission is to fight for equality and overcome barriers for women and girls to claim their human rights to water and sanitation. All this is coupled with the creation of a Feminist Water Agenda that promises to give women the space they deserve in decision-making regarding the management of the most precious liquid.
If we go back to the origins of water collectors and analyze it in depth, we will be able to understand the need of women to have the water supply because of the use they make of it, not only in domestic tasks but also in the productive tasks they carry out daily to maintain the wellbeing of their families and homes, even though they are the ones who have to go personally to fetch it, despite the risk this represents.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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