Gender and Water: The Case Study of Africa

  The water crisis in Africa:  source Water scarcity affects over 2.6 billion people worldwide, and has severe environmental, economic and social consequences  (Wutich 2012) . As explained in my previous post, due to water scarcity, there is an unequal disadvantage towards women since they are required to travel far to fetch water which isn’t necessarily drinkable and  resulting in loss of energy, time, and having severe health impacts  ( Kameri-Mbote and Kariuki 2015 ) .  Hence many policy interventions aim to address this including the SDGs. I aim to continue exploring throughout my blog. But first, it is important to contextualise the water scarcity situation within Africa order to gain a deeper understanding of how it impacts the gender discrepancy in certain regions. In this post, I will define water scarcity, look at the reasons for its existence, and then explore groundwater and its use.      Water scarcity Simply defined, this is...

‘ Women are intrinsically involved and effected by water’ - Lakshmi Puri, 2012 (Deputy executive director of UN women) Hi welcome to my blog ‘Gender and Water: The Case Study of Africa’. This quotation above, expressed by Puri at the closing convention of World Water Week in Stockholm, concisely encompasses what I will be exploring within the blogging series- women and their intrinsic relationship with water. In this opening post, I will explain my motivations for examining this gendered water relationship. I will then examine the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to this and contextualise the gender-water relationship. Why Gender? This stems from my passion for social equality and inclusion. Gender equality is a ‘ fundamental human right ’, yet this discrepancy still exists.   I am a firm believer in the fact that the most effective socioeconomic development can be heavily influenced by gender equality. This is because, half the world’s population is girls acco...