Women and Girls
The Gender Inequality Within Water Scarcity
Globally, 1.8 billion people live in houses without water supplies, which means women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection. The gender disparity is quite large, with seven out of ten households tasking women and girls over age 15 to collect water and only three out of ten households tasking their male counterparts. Additionally, girls under the age of 15 are more likely than boys under 15 to fetch water as the percentage of girls is 7% whereas the percentage of boys is only 4%. Because of this, men can focus on working and making money while women must take on the physical and mental burdens of collecting water to survive.
Stories
Honorine - Madagascar
Honorine spends three hours per day collecting water at a dirty river as only 36% of the population in Madagascar has access to clean water. Yet when her community received clean water, she did not have to spend three hours per day collecting water. Instead, she was able to use that time to start her own business: a fresh donut shop.
Madris Nginya - Kenya
Madris must carry barrels of water on her back for a three-hour round-trip to fetch water for her family and farm. During severe droughts, she must harvest her own rainwater to save water.
Grace - Ethiopia
Grace advocates for sustainability of pregnancy for women collecting water. While collecting water was taxing, uncomfortable, and dangerous for her body during pregnancy, she needed water at home.
Rehana - India
Rehana walked up to six hours a day to get water for cooking, laundry, and baths from a water pump managed by the government. As this water source was unreliable, she took out a loan to construct a water connection to her home.
