In many countries, women are responsible for finding and fetching water for their families. All the water they need for drinking, washing, cooking, cleaning. They walk miles, carry heavy burdens, wait for hours and pay exorbitant prices. The work is back-breaking and all-consuming. Often the water is contaminated, even deadly. In these instances, they face an impossible choice – certain death without water or possible death from illness.
Once they are old enough, girls join this effort. They spend countless hours trying to provide this basic life necessity.
i empathise with these women as for a while I walked in their shoes.....so I understand their hardship and their pain....maybe not to the same extreme but at the time it was such a difficult thing to live day-to-day with.
growin up in guyana.....in my very early years no one in my village had water in their homes
we used to fetch water from the 'pipes' which were found along the roads and maybe half-mile intervals.
even when we finally got water in our house....it was not pure and was full of this red stuff which I believe was from the pipe lines
plus....water used to always 'cut off' and then it was a mad scramble to find enough just to drink
those times.....we had to use the 'trench' water to wash dishes and clothes....thank goodness the water from the trench was always flowing due to the good irrigation system maintained by the sugar estates and the village councils.
In all my years of marriage.....i have never had a dripping faucet because my hubby is even more aware of water waste and would immediately fix any drip.
Women also struggle most from the lack of adequate sanitation, the often unspoken part of the water and sanitation crisis. The sanitation crisis for women can be summed up in one word: ‘dignity.’ Around the world, fewer than one person in three has access to a toilet. In many countries, it is not acceptable for a woman to relieve herself during the day. They wait hours for nightfall, just to have privacy. This impacts health and puts their safety at risk. About half of all girls worldwide attend schools without toilets. The lack of privacy causes many girls to drop out when they reach puberty.
The dual aspects of the water crisis – lack of water and of sanitation – lock women in a cycle of poverty. They cannot attend school; they cannot earn an income.
