Gender and Water: The Case Study of Africa

  source Following on from the last post, I will now focus on software solutions for addressing MHM, examining education and national agency. I believe that education, is the most important aspect, if long-term change is to take place, not only surrounding MHM, but WaSH and gender in general. Education of MHM allows issues such as discrimination and exclusion to be addressed, creates an environment which is supportive and allows the needs of females to be supported ( SSwanyana and Bitanhirwe 2017 ), and in doing so, breaks the negative narrative surrounding menstruation, and thus creates long term changes to knowledge and attitudes. With the better knowledge to handle their menses, this reduces school absenteeism, which reduces the potential for early pregnancy and child marriage  (T ellier and Hyttel 2018 ). In Kenya, a group called Empower Net provides in-and-out of school education support group for girls struggling with their menses. The aim of this is to create a supp...

  In last week’s blogs post, I examined period poverty and how the lack of safe water and the gender inequality perpetuate this, leading to a variety of physical, mental and societal impacts on girls. Therefore, I will now look at the different forms of MHM that has been put in place, in order to reduce these impacts. MHM is known as having the right materials to improve comfort and dignity whilst a female is on her period ( Sommer and Sahin 2013 ).  MHM is multifaceted problem and thus requires a variety of solutions ( Wilson et al 2014 )- so I will be exploring this over 2 blog posts.  The image below highlights how a combination of hardware and software solutions can sufficiently improve MHM. source Hardware solutions Local business initiatives have been set up to provide women with a combination of reusable and disposable sanitary products ( Wilson et al 2014 ). Two examples include the Afripads and the Makapads. Afripads:s ource Makapads: source   Af...

  source In last week’s blog about World Toilet Day, I emphasised the need to examine the gendered implications of sanitation thus allowing for development. Thus, this week I want to specifically look at period poverty with reference to Kibera, a shanty town in Kenya.  Period poverty is the combination of multiple practical and psychosocial deprivations which are experienced by mensuration women in resource poor settings  ( Crichton et al 2013 ) . Due to this, lives and wellbeing’s of women are being affected  (Action aid n/d) . In this blog I will elaborate on the dimensions which perpetuate period poverty, and how greater research is needed in reference to this.  Factors perpetuating period poverty The impact of insufficient WASH on females has been continuously highlighted throughout my blog, and of course this is the one of many factors perpetuating period poverty: Within Nairobi, less than ¼ of primary schools meet the minimum required latrines per pu...

Source What is World Toilet Day? As it was world toilet day on the 19 th November, I decided to make it the focus of my blog this week. World toilet day celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the fact that there are 4.2 billion people living without sufficient access to sanitation. It is also about achieving Goal 6 of the SDG- water and sanitation for all by 2030  ( UN 2020 ).  One thing that shocked me as I was researching this topic, was that more people have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet  ( Thieme 2018 )!  Shocking! The need for sanitation is especially important this year due to the Covid19 pandemic. This makes the lack of sanitation even more concerning because it shows how small things such as washing your hands are so important in preventing the virus from spreading ( BBC 2020 ). The theme for 2020 is sustainable sanitation and climate change, emphasising the need to maintain health and security whilst encouraging the sustainable handli...

  In my previous post, I contextualised the water scarcity in Africa. Due to restricted water access in Sub-Saharan Africa, one (usually the female) must leave their home and travel to access water. It is estimated that approximately two thirds of the Sub-Saharan Africa population are required to collect water ( Graham et al 2016 ) .  Thus, in this post I want to highlight issues associated with water collection, and how it accentuates the gender discrepancy. I will use  Varickanickal et al (2020 ) case study of Nyanchwa, a village in Kenya, examining the water-risk perceptions of female water collectors to illustrate this. The reason for choosing Kenya is rather personal. my grandfather was born and raised in Kenya, and I remember talking to him a few years ago about his life there. A detail I remembered was how every morning, his servant (who was female) used to spend about an hour daily collecting water. This gave me an incentive to research further the water collectio...

  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...