Water, Gender and Development in Africa

What can we do about the issues that women face when it comes to water and sanitation? Participation, collaboration, inclusion, and communication! Women have often been excluded from decision-making processes at different levels of society . Restrictions to participation include many of those discussed in previous blogs, including gender roles, land rights, and time poverty . I have also illustrated the important role that women play in relation to water, from collecting it to managing it, yet they are deemed the least important due to social norms, law, and policy bias . The male position in society is assumed to be one of monetary and societal power, in which authority is automatically awarded and assumed. They are “ allocated non-domestic duties such as decision-making, breadwinning and others, all of which belong to the public sector .” This in turn leads to women being dismissed, ignored , or forgotten as they are not assumed to be part of the discussion around water issues and ...

So far, this blog has discussed how gender and water are related and has explored the consequences of this relationship. A common denominator for many of the issues we have discussed has been cultural norms. Therefore, all solutions proposed, regardless of their size and scale, must consider cultural norms. Thus, I suggest that solutions should start by addressing and challenging social taboos. Taboos are found everywhere, irrespective of development, culture, or class, and this can span from taboos surrounding sexuality, money, or even asking a woman’s age. I would like to focus on two – the taboo of shit and the taboo of periods. Taboo of shit There is an unspoken social rule which restricts how we talk about sanitation. The act of going to the toilet is a private practice and one that is somewhat unhygienic, so does not require attention or discussion. You go, you do, you leave. What more is there to talk about? This social awkwardness around talking about toilets has a wider im...

Apologies for my language, but who really gives a shit about shit? Following rapid population growth, the African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that Africa’s  population will increase from 1 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2030 . This rapid growth has outgrown the rate of infrastructural construction. This problem is made worse by the increased number of informal settlements, inadequate governance, poor urban planning, and limited access to water sources. Due to this, approximately 900 million people worldwide are still forced to defecate in the open because they do not have access to a toilet. This is shocking given that sustainable development goal 6 focuses on sanitation and access to toilets. What about those who do have access? I hope that by now I have shown that simply having the physical infrastructure available is not enough! Access to toilets is not contingent on having the infrastructure, instead, this can be affected by maintenance, location, and opening ho...

Aside from domestic use, water is essential in industry, particularly in agriculture. Water scarcity or variability in water availability impacts  farming in different ways,  from delaying farming operations to causing crop failure. For many,  farming is part of  their livelihood,  but on a more national scale, it is an important economic sector, employing over  50% of the African population . Although women represent  approximately 50% of the labour force in this sector , they are restricted by cultural and societal expectations. Despite the energy and time that women invest in agriculture, their output and yield remain lower compared to males. This is due to a variety of factors, including  access to land and labour , as well as challenges related to time poverty, to name a few. Cultural norms:  It is interesting to further dissect these gendered roles in terms of agriculture, as men and women have different responsibilities on the farm. Th...

Areas across Africa, including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), are not connected to water infrastructure such as water pipes. This means that about two-thirds of people living in SSA must leave their homes to collect water. This is due to limited water infrastructure, investment, and water sources. This forces individuals and communities to travel long distances and wait in lines to access water sources. Women and children are often the ones to bear the burden of this responsibility as they collect and manage the use of water . In the last blog, we explored the role of culture in assigning gender-based roles. The responsibility of water collection is a further example of this as it manifested through patriarchal cultural norms .   This blog, however, will highlight the extent to which the collection and use of water is a gendered issue   whilst also exploring the consequences of this burden on young girls and women. Impacts of water collection Although water fetching is ph...

The previous post introduced the relationship between water and gender, and this post will add to this by understanding how cultural and social norms across the continent affect women and their relationship with water. At the household level, water is needed for people’s livelihoods but also to complete d ifferent tasks , including cooking, bathing, washing clothes and dishes. Gender, as a social construct, has manifested social norms and gendered roles in society. In South Africa, as is the case in many other countries, men are often considered the breadwinners , whereas women are typically responsible for completing domestic duties. Despite these common patriarchal views , such clearly split roles are hard to maintain in reality, as some households will not have a male head or the presence of both genders (male and female). This can occur for reasons such as death- which leaves women widowed – or migration in which men seek work abroad or in a different part of the country to bette...