Ignore water, ignore women

That’s  the title of a recent  article in the  The Punch by Juliett Willetts ( The Institute for Sustainable Futures),  published in time for World Water Day on 22nd March and helping  to bring the issue once again to the world’s attention.

Also just released is the latest report of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme on Water Supply and Sanitation entitled “Progress on sanitation and drinking-water – 2010 Update“, it provides the most recent data for drinking-water and sanitation, along with the implications and trends these new data reveal for reaching the basic sanitation and safe drinking-water MDG target.

For example around the world a staggering 884 million people, one in eight people sharing the world todaycan’t just turn on a tap and access safe water

With the MDG target date of 2015 only five years away, it is time to intensify efforts towards achieving the MDG target and addressing the glaring disparities worldwide.

In the article Juliett reports

Will 2010 be the year that the prime issue facing most women and girls in developing countries earns the recognition and action it deserves?

Water, toilets and hygiene – there can be nothing more basic than this.

And yet these issues continually slide from the political priority list and lack the funds and action required to change this awful reality, mostly borne by poor women around the globe.

The Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, have been working with International Women’s Development Agency in the the Pacific and bring to people’s attention how issues of equality between women and men are closely interlinked with the issue of lack of water, toilets and hygiene.

The benefits you might expect like reduced heavy work for women and healthier families are widespread. But what is more intriguing, is that women’s strong motivation to assist and make projects like this happen also earns them respect in their communities, and can give them the chance to have input to decision-making spaces that were previously forbidden and the sole domain of men. In this way, giving access to water and involving women in that process plants a seed for transformation in that community.

Want More Information?

Read Juliett’s full article in the  The Punch

Read How do we better address gender in Pacific water and sanitation programs? Gabrielle Halcrow’s introduction to IWDA’s participation in  WASH programs in Fiji and Vanuata

Tags: Environment, Events/Campaigns/Press Releases, MDG, Natural Resources, Pacific

This entry was posted on Friday, March 26th, 2010 under Environment and Natural Resources, Recent.