Written By Ngobi Ronald On 31st March 2023
Ngobi says lack of access to water and sanitation means lack of equality and denial of women and girls to access to social and economic power to sit on decision-making and leadership tables.
GENDER As the month of March comes to an end, International Women’s Day and World Water Day come to my mind. Both days are important as far as access to water and sanitation and gender equality are concerned. As the position that universal access to water is key to women’s empowerment, it is critical to interrogate how women’s political and socio-economic participation and opportunities are disproportionately affected by women’s inadequate access to water and sanitation.
It is not by chance that women are responsible for collecting water for their households, a task that remains unpaid, yet time-consuming, dangerous and backbreaking. It is a social construct, a personal safety and health issue for a Ugandan woman and girls, and an everyday practice that requires her to walk long distances on foot for about six hours more than once a day to access clean water at the expense of education, community programmes and economic activities.
WaterAid estimates that about 38 million Ugandans lack access to safely managed water services. Thus, families without access to clean and safe water either force women and girls to walk long distances in search of water or resort to surface water sources, resulting in water-borne diseases and other challenges like sexual harassment.
Yet, when their family members, especially children contract a diarrhoeal disease, one of the top three childhood killers in Uganda, women shoulder the burden as the primary carers. Besides walking long distances to access water, WaterAid estimates that women and girls lose about 266 million hours daily worried about where to find a toilet, going to a toilet outside the house or sharing one with men and boys.
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