Solutions to help achieve WASH goals for every girl and women

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Approx. 6 minutes read <600 words

The context:

Throughout my growing years in India, I was fortunate enough to have a piped supply of municipal water in my home. I was able to get a glass of water to drink whenever I wanted, take a shower, and if there was an announcement about interruption in water supply, my family made sure to store the water for usage. I used to think that this was the way of life for everyone. My perception changed in 2003, when I first started working for a small grassroots nonprofit in Meerut, a northern Indian city. I witnessed women and girls carrying loads of water to and from the point source for their household’s daily usage. On an average, they had to walk 3 miles per day to have adequate water for potable usage in their homes. Not only the women and girls were at risk of being attacked by stray dogs or abused by onlookers, they were missing out on the opportunities to get an education and contributing to the society.

In the developing world, from African to Asia, it is the responsibility of women and girls in households to bring water from the point source everyday. A new study review published by UNC’s Water Institute has found that carrying heavy loads of water over head (head loading) may impart physical stress to the bones and soft tissues of the neck and upper back through vertical compression, also called ‘axial loading’ or ‘axial compression.’ It’s especially dangerous for young girls in their formative years, which can result to permanent damage.

A universal problem:

While the above study focuses mostly on African countries (South African and Ghana), the challenge of carrying water overhead is a universal phenomenon in the developing world as seen in Asian countries of India and Vietnam. In India, the barrier is not only physical but also socio-economical. Dalit* women face the threat of violence against them while collecting the water unfortunately from the women of other castes. According to a paper published more than a decade ago, for the women in slums, peri-urban and urban areas, water and sanitation was one of the biggest daily challenges.

Solutions which are also low hanging fruits:

The three key policy and programmatic takeaways, in areas where water fetching must continue, strategies should focus on

• reducing the distance to water sources,
• providing alternatives to carrying water on the head, such as wheelbarrows, and
• eliminating gender-based violence

In conclusion:

Fetching water is a barrier to achieving SDG 3 (“ensure healthy lives and promote well being for all at all ages”) because of its association with health problems. The burden of water collection, and the fact that it falls disproportionately on women and girls, is also a barrier to achieving target 1 of SDG 6 (SDG6.1: “universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all”). Applying policy instruments along with the solutions provided in Engineering for Change’s Solutions Library shall help remove barriers to achieving these two goals for all women and girls globally.

Disclaimer:

This article originally appeared on Engineering for Change under the heading
Reflections on a Review of Studies on the Physical and Emotional Toll of Carrying Water. It has been edited slightly for the ease of the readers of this blog.

References:

This article is based on the latest study published by UNC’s Water Institute’s WASH Policy Digest. For all the data and references cited above, please refer to the original article here. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

*In India’s caste based society, Dalits are at the lowest wrung of the ladder.