Water is a Women's Issue
The Socioeconomic Implications of Water Scarcity Globally
Lauren Bowser
The Importance of Water in Our Lives
For all humans, water is an essential need. While the body can last weeks without food, it only lasts days without water as the body is made up of about 50% to 75% of water. Therefore, because water is needed to help our body—with digestion, keeping our cells healthy, and regulating body temperature—it is imperative that every human being has clean water accessible to them regardless of where they live. Through my research, I have learned that billions of people around the world do not have clean water—or water at all—accessible to them, with 29% of people globally lacking access to safe drinking water because of water scarcity.
Why Women?
The burden of water scarcity is more pressing for certain groups of people, specifically women and girls. As women make up the majority of those living in poverty, there is a significant interconnection between inaccessibility to water and gender inequality around the world. For example, in Malawi, the UN reported that women spend an average of 54 minutes collecting water while men only spend 6 minutes. In Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania, average collection times for women were double that of men. As many houses do not have running water, women collectively spend 200 million hours each day collecting water from a (sometimes) clean water source, which takes away time for them to work and go to school. Yet women deserve to have equal rights and opportunities, especially when those opportunities are limited by water scarcity throughout the world.
The graph below shows the significant amount of time women of various ages spend collecting water in many different countries around the world. It compares the time they spend collecting water to their male counterparts, which is significantly less.
The Privilege of Water
For people who live in first-world countries, accessibility to clean water is a privilege. In our capitalistic and materialistic economy, water is perceived as a powerful resource. Therefore, those in our society who have access to water have economic and societal power. However, those in the lower class who lack economic and societal respect do not have easy access to water. Therefore, water should be a right instead of a privilege. Humans can only last a matter of days without water, meaning every person needs access to water for survival, regardless of their socioeconomic status. Thankfully, with new, emerging technologies, society will hopefully do better by providing marginalized, and overlooked communities easy access to water.
Questions?
Contact lauren.bowser@fontbonneboston.org to get more information on the project
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