How Clean Water Transforms Women’s Lives: Celebrating International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is a holiday that celebrates women’s achievements and brings attention to women’s issues, like gender equality and reproductive rights. This blog post gives some insight to the relationship between women and water.
Women and Water
The global water crisis impacts everyone, but women and girls are most vulnerable. When discussing water, including water-related challenges and WASH interventions, it is crucial to acknowledge the role of women. Women and girls’ play the primary role in everyday practices, like fetching water and maintaining sanitation facilities. Women and girls collectively spend 200 million hours fetching water every single day (UNICEF).
The acknowledgement of the uneven distribution of the burdens relating to women is critical. The role of women in water-related tasks, such as fetching water and washing clothes, exacerbates their risks to the negative outcomes of water insecurity. Some negative outcomes of poor water access include poor health, missed economic and education opportunities, and reinforced gender inequality. For example, in Malawi, the burden of household water collection falls to women and girls who are forced to walk up to 7km daily to collect water from alternative safe sources or risk their family’s health by drawing water from unsafe sources. The impact of this includes compromising their time, safety and health while missing out on livelihood and education opportunities.
Clean Water Transforms Lives
We can combat the negative impacts of the global water crisis through implementing sustainable solutions that increase safe access to clean water. Clean water has the potential to transform lives, especially for women and girls. When women and girls no longer have to devote their time and energy to obtaining the essential resource, they can focus on improving their lives. Without the burden of water fetching, they have more time to go to school or pursue productive activities. They also do not have to compromise their health and safety by trekking long distances for water or using unsafe water.
Clean water opens a world of opportunity for women and girls. The impact of increased clean water access can be seen through Pump Aid’s work. Through our repair and maintenance services, we ensure functionality of a local safe water source for rural Malawians, increasing time and opportunities for women and girls. Beyond the presence of clean water, Pump Aid establishes livelihoods around rural water access in Malawi. With an active effort to train and support female Area Mechanics, we foster employment opportunities for Malawian women and offer a source of sustainable income.
While water is a basic resource, it is essential. Clean water is a prerequisite to a good, healthy life. As we continue our work to end water poverty in Malawi, we aim to increase our positive impact on women and girls and contribute to the global goal of gender equality.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is Accelerate Action, placing focus on speeding up the rate of progress on gender equality globally. Pump Aid understands the importance of supporting women in our WASH projects in rural Malawi. We prioritise improving gender outcomes with our work, specifically through reducing the burden of water insecurity on women and girls and providing livelihood opportunities through training and supporting women to become Area Mechanics. Learn more the impact of water poverty on the lives of women and girls in Malawi in our short video – Breaking the Cycle: Water Poverty and Empowering Women and Girls in Malawi.
Celebrate International Women’s Day with Pump Aid through contributing to our Matched Funding March campaign, where all donations will be matched up to 20k.
