Solutions Volume 7, Issue 6 by The Solutions Journal

November-December 2016, Volume 7, Issue 6

For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions Securing Water and Women in a Changing World

Microcredit for WaSH: A Choice for Women in Uganda by Dennis Willms, Rose Kawere, and Sarah Hajat Matovu Hot and Bothered: Water and Women in a Warming World by Robert Sandford and Corinne Schuster-Wallace Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Human Rights to Water and Sanitation by Catarina de Albuquerque and Virginia Roaf Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water by Kate Cave and Shianne McKay Of Religious Tomes and Tippy Taps by Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Susan Watt

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Schuster-Wallace, C. and S. Watt. (2016). Water and Women: Struggles to Survive, Potentials to Thrive, Opportunities to Lead. Solutions 7(6): 1. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-and-wome-struggles-to-survive-potentials-to-thrive-opportunities-to-lead

Editorial by Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Susan Watt

Water and Women: Struggles to Survive, Potentials to Thrive, Opportunities to Lead

t a fundamental level, the gendered roles that women have assumed over time—reproductive, productive, and community management—are significantly impacted by lack of water, poor water quality, lack of sanitation, and inadequate hygiene facilities (WaSH).1,2 Almost 25 years ago, through the Dublin Statement,3 women were officially recognized as playing significant roles in the water sector: providing, managing, and protecting water for themselves, their families, and their communities. In addition to being a biological necessity to sustain life, water is important in many social, cultural, and economic contexts. It is hard for women in high income countries to imagine going to a health facility to deliver a baby and finding that there is no running water or toilet facilities. Similarly, caring for children and/or sick family members in the absence of convenient, potable water demands multiple trips to distant locations to collect water for food, laundry, hygiene, and cleaning. Watering crops and cattle for food and monetary gain can be futile during dry seasons or prolonged droughts. While best placed to make decisions to improve community WaSH and water management, due to the burdens placed upon women, the time-opportunity costs are usually too high for them to engage meaningfully in these dialogues even if they are invited to participate in management decisions. Globally, corruption and misappropriation are rife in the water sector, and, because of their roles and socio-economic status, many women fall victim to their effects.4 These can

include bartering bodies for service and risking personal safety to travel further due to the failure of poorly constructed local water facilities. Many women around the world face these challenges on a daily basis. However, globally, more and more women are (re)claiming their rights to, responsibilities for, and control over water, water management, and WaSH. This special issue highlights how women are creating positive change for themselves, their children, and their communities, and how technologies can be employed to empower women in these efforts. Depending upon the lens applied to water, solutions will be widely different, but until now, we have not really utilized a gendered lens. There are many lessons to be learned from, and solutions to be found by, applying a gendered lens to water. These stories need to be built upon and shared. The collection of papers in this issue begins to focus a gendered lens on education, child survival, community leadership, human rights, economic roles, and environmental stewardship. In highlighting the issues and some exciting solutions in each of these areas, it is not our intention to negate the dominant male discourse, but rather to supplement it with unique, varied, and essential perspectives that women bring to bear around water and water security. It is only in engaging both men and women that true sustainability will be achieved within Agenda 2030 (the Sustainable Development Goals). To harness the abilities and resources of women in a productive and proactive manner,

Andy Hall / Oxfam

Potable water brings joy to women of all ages.

it is essential to achieve principles of transparency, accountability, equity, equality, and social justice. This cannot be achieved unless women are educated and empowered, holding positions as researchers, practitioners, leaders, and politicians across government, utilities, communities, and sectors. Ultimately, it will take women to shift the value of water from that of vested self-interest to its full worth and significance, not only as an economic good, but as a resource for life, health, well-being, recreation, reflection, and inspiration. References 1. Moser, CON. Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training (Routledge, New York City, 1993). 2. Stanley, AC, Schuster-Wallace, CJ, Watt, MS & Willms, D. An NGO framework addressing women’s double jeopardy: HIV/AIDS and WaSH (under review). 3. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development [online] (1992). http://www.wmo.int/ pages/prog/hwrp/documents/english/icwedece.html. 4. World Water Day: Corruption in the water sector’s costly impact. Transparency International [online] (March 21, 2016). http://www.transparency.org/ news/feature/world_water_day_corruption_in_ the_water_sectors_costly_impact.

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Contents

November/December 2016

Features

The search for real answers begins with Solutions

Women’s Roles in Managing Wetlands

Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water

Women Tackle Household Drinking Water in Rural Kenya by Diana M. Karanja, Ruth K. Senelwa,

Join the Solutions Team Become a part of the global Solutions Team. Have Solutions delivered to your door or devices with our new PDF subscription. Keep up to date on our latest articles and gain exclusive access to online and face to face Solutions events.

Submit Join the dialogue. Submit your thoughts in the form of articles, news stories, features, or online comments. What are your solutions?

Become a Partner Your contribution will help bring together people from all walks of life in creating innovative solutions.

by Mariam Kenza Ali and Ania Grobicki

Women play a central role in safeguarding water. This includes managing wetlands, which supply all of our freshwater – but are rapidly disappearing. Women must be empowered as the guardians of both wetlands and water to reverse this trend and effect sustainable development in wetland management.

by Kate Cave and Shianne McKay

The Indigenous women of Canada share a sacred connection to the spirit of water, but through colonialism processes have been largely excluded from water governance. Across the country, these women are now raising their voices to draw attention to water issues, reclaiming their roles as water stewards.

and Douglas Mokong’u

At the frontlines of household water provisioning, women have a high stake in accessing safe water. In rural Kenya, one group of women utilized microfinance to support the purchase of biosand filters, providing safer drinking water to their families and community.

Rainwater Harvesting: Water Security for Marginalized Communities in India by Ross Michael Pink

Rainwater harvesting is an ancient, eco-friendly technique that makes water collection easier and safer for women. In India, various rainwater collection technologies are resulting in economic opportunities for women and improved health across communities.

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Microcredit for WaSH: A Choice for Women in Uganda by Dennis Willms, Rose Kawere, and Sarah Hajat Matovu

Scovia is a wife, mother, and farmer living in rural Uganda. With the opportunity provided by Salama SHIELD Foundation’s participatory development microcredit program, she is one of many women overcoming poverty to enhance the well-being of her family and community.

On the Web

Perspectives

www.thesolutionsjournal.org Explore the Solutions website for more content and interactivity. What are your solutions? Share your vision for a sustainable and desirable future and learn more about the Solutions community.

Envisioning

Water and Women: A Collective Vision for the Future by Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace,

Susan Watt, Dennis Willms, Mariam Ali, Alice Bouman-Dentener, Jean Chamberlain, Jo-Anne Geere, Ania Grobicki, Diana S. Karanja, Rose Kawere, Maria Mutagamba, Eve Nakabembe, Sarah Nakalembe, Ross M. Pink, Virginia Roaf, Robertetta Rose, and Robert W. Sandford In 2041, women have reshaped water stewardship and advanced gender equity has enhanced women’s capacity to realize human rights to water and sanitation.

Hot and Bothered: Water and Women in a Warming World by Robert Sandford and Corinne Schuster-Wallace

Women and WaSH: The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation by Catarina de Albuquerque and Virginia Roaf

The GWP Gender Strategy: Working on the Interface of Women and Water by Alice M. Bouman-Dentener

Water Gender Policy in Practice in Uganda by Maria Mutagamba

Water: A Missing Link That Can Save Mothers and Newborns by Jean Chamberlain and Eve Nakabembe

Post-Ebola Recovery: The Future We Want by Robertetta Tita Rose

Girls and WaSH: How WaSH in Schools Can Help to Address Gender Inequities by Leslie Moreland

The Fastest Way to Safe Water for All: Women by Arnold Marseille

On the Ground

A Voice from the Field by Dennis G. Willms, Rose Kaware, and Hajat Sarah

Matovu As a member of Salama SHIELD Foundation’s micro-credit revolving loan program, Nakiguli Margaret is working with other women in her rural community to bring basic sanitation and hygiene facilities to all homes in her village. This is Nakiguli’s story.

Solutions in History

Of Religious Tomes and Tippy Taps by Corinne Schuster-Wallace and

Susan Watt Cleanliness has remained a social value across historical eras. In today’s society, hygiene fuels a multi-million dollar industry, but somewhere along the way, the simple act of hand washing fell to the wayside. How can we revive this most basic, and important, of hygiene practices?

Idea Lab Noteworthy

06 Interview

Germany Goes Electric: All Cars Must be Emissions-free by 2030 Toymakers Take the Lead on Sustainable Plastics It’s Not Just a Headline— Working Shorter Hours Does Help the Environment What Design Can Do for Refugees

An African Male Perspective on Women and Water: An Interview with Ivan Tibenkana by Corinne Schuster-Wallace

As a public health leader in the Busoga Kingdom of Uganda, Ivan Tibenkana is quick to identify the challenges local women and girls face accessing water. He also knows that women are critical to overcoming these challenges.

In Review

Re-examining Women, Water, and Environmental Change by Melanie Stewart

Editorial

Water and Women: Struggles to Survive, Potentials to Thrive, Opportunities to Lead by Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Susan

Watt Globally, women bear the brunt of WaSH-related challenges. They are also at the forefront of countless budding solutions. There are many lessons to be learned from, and solutions to be found by applying a gendered lens to water. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2016 | Solutions | 3

Solutions

Contributors 2

Editors-in-Chief: Robert Costanza, Ida Kubiszewski Associate Editors: David Orr, Jacqueline McGlade Managing Editor: Colleen Maney

Senior Editors: Christina Asquith, Jack Fairweather History Section Editor: Frank Zelko Book & Envisioning Editor: Bruce Cooperstein

Editor: Naomi Stewart Photo Editors: Marc Fader, Marcello Hernandez Graphic Designer: Kelley Dodd Copy Editors: Anna Sottile, Nadine Ledesme Business Manager: Ian Chambers Intern: Devin Windelspecht Editorial Board: Gar Alperovitz, Vinya Ariyaratne, Robert Ayres, Peter Barnes, William Becker, Lester Brown, Alexander Chikunov, Cutler Cleveland, Raymond Cole, Rita Colwell, Robert Corell, Herman Daly, Thomas Dietz, Josh Farley, Jerry Franklin, Susan Joy Hassol, Paul Hawken, Richard Heinberg, Jeffrey Hollender, Buzz Holling, Terry Irwin, Jon Isham, Wes Jackson, Tim Kasser, Tom Kompas, Frances Moore Lappé, Rik Leemans, Wenhua Li, Thomas Lovejoy, Hunter Lovins, Manfred Max-Neef, Peter May, Bill McKibben, William J. Mitsch, Mohan Munasinghe, Norman Myers, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Bill Rees, Wolfgang Sachs, Peter Senge, Vandana Shiva, Anthony Simon, Gus Speth, Larry Susskind, David Suzuki, John Todd, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Alvaro Umaña, Sim van der Ryn, Peter Victor, Mathis Wackernagel, John Xia, Mike Young

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On the Cover Jahanara Akhter, age 27, lives in 36 Bari Colony, a slum in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. She works as a tailor to supplement her husband’s income as a construction worker. She also volunteers as a health and hygiene promoter working with female adolescents in the slum. Here, she demonstrates handwashing to a group of girls. A passionate advocate of handwashing, she is seeing the results of her efforts: “I like doing the work that I do, the fact that people can stay healthy. I like the result of my work.” Jahanara also works to promote drain clearing. “Before, the latrines and drains were very dirty,” she explains. “Now, it’s a lot better, but there’s so much more to do.” Photo by Tom Pietrasik / Oxfam. Solutions is subject to the Creative Commons license except where otherwise stated.

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1. Corinne Schuster-Wallace, Guest Editor—Corinne has worked at the water-

health nexus for over a decade. For the last eight years, she has worked in an international, transdisciplinary context developing evidence for informed decision-making, creating tools to help local decision-makers collect the information required for making decisions regarding sustainable WaSH solutions in rural communities. Corinne has also worked to develop innovative self-financing frameworks for accelerating the scale of WaSH coverage. She has broad experience at the water-health nexus including environmental factors for, and environmental change impacts on, outbreaks of waterborne disease and links to human health and well-being. 2. Susan Watt, Guest Editor—

Susan is an Emerita Professor of Social Work at McMaster University and an Adjunct Professor at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her research is primarily at the intersection of health care and social policy, particularly in relation to maternal and newborn health in Canada and globally. Most recently her focus has been on the impact of WaSH policies and practice in LMICs and their impact on maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. Additionally, she works on issues of interdisciplinary communitybased education, research ethics, and gender equity. 3. Mariam Kenza Ali—Mariam man-

ages the Ramsar Convention Secretariat’s Culture & Livelihoods Partnership, which seeks to support the integration of cultural practices, communities, and livelihoods within wetland management. Prior to joining the Ramsar Secretariat, she coordinated IUCN’s World Heritage Conservation Team and led the development of World Heritage Outlook. Over the last ten years she has had varied experiences working with protected areas, multilateral environmental agreements, communities, and land-use planning. Mariam has field research experience in Indonesia and Madagascar and is of Swiss, American and Somali heritage.

4. Ania Grobicki—Ania led the

CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food as its first Coordinator, based at the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka. She was then based at WHO as Head of Secretariat for a multi-stakeholder forum on strengthening research for health, focusing upon developing the research-policy interface. As Executive Secretary of the Global Water Partnership (2009–2015) she managed the worldwide network and its global secretariat. She has been deeply involved in stakeholder consultations in establishing the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, Ania took up the position of Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Since November 2015, Ania has fulfilled the role of Acting Secretary General ad interim. 5. Kate Cave—Kate is passionate

about protecting our environment and is strongly committed to ensuring Indigenous communities have a voice in water stewardship and governance processes. She has a B.A. in Environmental and Native Studies from Trent University and a M.E.S from University of Waterloo. Kate has over 10 years of experience working in the environmental field and with Indigenous communities across Canada and rural, remote communities in developing countries. She has worked with the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER) since 2014. 6. Shianne McKay—Shianne is

Ojibway from Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba. She attained a B.Sc. in Environmental and Conservation Sciences with a major in Conservation Biology from the University of Alberta and has worked with CIER since 2009. In 2013, she received a certificate in Indigenous Women in Community Leadership from the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. Shianne enjoys working with Indigenous youth, sharing the importance of environment and culture, and empowering youth as future leaders in their communities and guardians of the lands and waters.

Contributors 7

14 8

7. Dennis Willms—Dennis is a

10. Virginia Roaf—Virginia is an

14. Maria Mutagamba—Hon. Maria

retired Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology at McMaster University. Prior to this, he was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and worked as an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, where he was first introduced to the clinical and medical urgencies associated with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. He founded the Salama SHIELD Foundation in 1992 and has been engaged in the design of health and development programs in Sub-Saharan Africa for over 40 years, conducting HIV/AIDS ethnographic research in Canada, Malawi, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Currently residing in Ontario, he is blessed with Rita, his wife of 36 years, and two sons.

independent consultant working on the practical implications of the human rights to water and sanitation for improving access to these resources for marginalized and vulnerable individuals and groups. She is currently working with the Sanitation and Water for All partnership, as well as with WaterAid. She previously worked with Catarina de Albuquerque as the lead writer for a handbook on realizing the human rights to water and sanitation.

Mutagamba is the Former Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities in the Government of Uganda. She is a former member of the UNSGAB, former Minister of Water and Environment, and former Minister of State for Water. She was also the former President of the African Minister’s Council on Water. She is a strong advocate for gender in WaSH.

8. Diana M.S. Karanja—Diana is a

health researcher working to implement community health programs. Her main focus is expanding the understanding of the epidemiology, immunology, and control of water-borne and water-related diseases. Towards this goal, she has implemented numerous laboratory and community-based studies and programs in collaborations with organizations such as Kenya Medical Research Institute, COHESU, WHO, United Nations University - INWEH, University of Waterloo, Canada, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation, as well as researchers from the greater East African community. Together with these teams, Diana has published numerous scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. 9. Catarina de Albuquerque—

Catarina is the Executive Chair of Sanitation and Water for All, a global multi-stakeholder partnership that is working towards realizing SDG 6 of universal access to water and sanitation through concerted action at the international, regional, and local levels. Prior to this, de Albuquerque was the first UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to water and sanitation, and in this role produced ground-breaking reports relating to the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation.

15. Leslie Moreland—Leslie currently

an internationally recognized expert in women’s health, and a member of the Order of Canada. She is the founding director of Save the Mothers, spending eight months per year in Uganda and four months in Canada advocating for safe motherhood. As Associate Professor in Ob/Gyn at McMaster University, Canada, she has authored two books: Game Changers and Where Have All the Mothers Gone?

works as an independent global health and WaSH consultant, with a specific interest in supporting research, monitoring, and evaluation efforts to improve the evidence base for reducing diarrhealrelated diseases. She has an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has worked for over nine years to improve quality of and access to WaSH services, primarily in East Africa and South Asia, with organizations including WaterAid and the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada.

12. Eve Nakabembe—Eve is a

16. Robertetta Tita Rose—

Ugandan Ob/Gyn on faculty at Makerere University, Uganda. She received additional training in reproductive health and rights from Lund University, Sweden, and is director of the Mother Baby Friendly Hospital Program of Save the Mothers.

Robertetta is a feminist living in Liberia. For many years, she has worked to ensure that women coming from more religious, traditional, or patriarchal backgrounds gradually break away from societal inequality through economic empowerment. Robertetta dreams of a world in which her infant son can look at a female and see her as his equal partner or colleague. With the right information, education, collaboration, and examples of best practices from other countries, she believes that Liberia is not so far from realizing this dream.

11. Jean Chamberlain—Jean is

13. Alice Bouman-Dentener—Alice’s

work on the water-gender-development interface started when she was selected Women’s Representative for the Netherlands to the United Nations General Assembly in 1999, where she addressed the UNGA on Women, Water and Development. Following the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg 2002), she founded the Women for Water Partnership, a global women’s network serving over 100 countries. She acted as President of the organization for ten years. Alice is currently the Vice Chair of the Global Water Partnership. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Gender Concerns International, is Vice President of the Water Research and Training Centre of Myanmar, and chairs the Members Council of the European Water Stewardship.

17. Arnold Marseille—Arnold studied

journalism and comparative politics. After a career in journalism, in 2004 he switched to media and communication for development and has since designed, managed, and implemented public awareness, civic education, advocacy campaigns, media, and communication strategies and training in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Asia Pacific, Nepal, and Somalia. In 2016, Arnold briefly returned to The Netherlands to support the Women for Water Partnership, on behalf

of which he wrote this contribution. He currently works as a knowledge management advisor on the Building Climate Resilience of Watersheds in Mountain Eco-Regions project in Nepal, funded by the Climate Investment Fund. 18. Robert Sandford—Bob is the

EPCOR Chair for Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. In this capacity Bob was a co-author of the UN Water in the World We Want report on post-2015 global sustainable development goals relating to water. Bob is also the senior advisor on water issues for the Interaction Council, a global public policy forum composed of more than thirty former Heads of State and Government including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, US President Bill Clinton, and the former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Brundtland. 19. Melanie Stewart—Melanie is a

recent graduate of McMaster University where she completed a Master’s degree in international relations. Melanie is passionate about the environment and has incorporated this interest into much of her academic career. 20. Megan Singleton—Megan is a

practicing artist and educator based in St. Louis, Missouri. Her ecology-based work crisscrosses the boundaries of contemporary craft, combining sculpture, papermaking, installation, and digital applications. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Louisiana State University and BFA in Photography from Webster University. Her work can be found in the collections of the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, and in numerous private and corporate collections. 21. Ross Michael Pink—Ross is the author of the 2016 book Water Rights in Southeast Asia and India. He is a co-founder of Global Water Rights (www.globalwaterrights.com), and teaches Politics, Sustainability and International Relations at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Canada.

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Noteworthy. (2016). Solutions 7(6): 6-9.

Idea Lab Noteworthy Germany Goes Electric: All Cars Must be Emissions-free by 2030 by Devin Windelspecht

Germany’s ambitions aren’t small when it comes to combating the threat of climate change. By 2050, the European country hopes to cut up to 95 percent of its current CO2 emissions, and to do so it has decided on a bold new plan: to ensure that all newly made cars are emissions-free by the year 2030. This decision follows on the heels of a recent cash-incentive program, announced in April of this year, to

put more electric and hybrid cars onto German roads. The program, financed by a €600 million investment by the federal government, will give car buyers €4,000 when they choose to buy a purely electric vehicle and €3,000 when purchasing a plug-in hybrid. Germany also plans to invest €100 million into replacing its government fleet with electric cars, and a final €300 million towards improving the infrastructure and availability of electric-car recharging stations. According to Germany’s Environmental Industry, this plan will help to put up to 500,000 more

electric cars on the road by 2020— a year that also serves as Germany’s self-imposed deadline for cutting the nation’s emissions by 40 percent. So far, German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW have signed on to the plan, which remains open to all foreign and national car brands. Germany has already proven itself to be a world leader in battling climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with renewable energy sources accounting for a third of the country’s electricity consumption last year. Yet while the reduction of emissions from electric power has

Michael Movchin

Electric car charging. 6 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Idea Lab Noteworthy been substantial, this same level of success has not yet been met in the transportation industry. Today, only 130,000 cars in Germany are hybrids, and a mere 25,000 are fully electric, compared to the 30 million gasoline cars and 14.5 million diesel vehicles currently found on the country’s roads. Altogether, electric cars make up only one percent of vehicles registered in Germany. By placing an estimated 400,000 commercial and 100,000 governmental electric vehicles on the road, German Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel plans to make electric cars finally, as quoted by The Guardian, “mass market capable”—a goal that has eluded electric and hybrid car manufacturers for years. While Germany’s plan to tackle the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is ambitious, it isn’t the only nation pushing for these changes. In August of 2015, against the backdrop of the Paris Climate Change Conference, seven U.S. states, four countries, and one Canadian province—among them California, Oregon, New York, Norway, the UK, and Quebec—agreed to the Zero-emissions Vehicle Mandate, a commitment to only allow automakers to sell zero-emissions vehicles by the year 2050. The Netherlands has gone even one step further. In June, four major political parties agreed to put forward a proposal to ban gas-fueled vehicles by 2025. While Dutch politicians do not unanimously agree upon the goal, the proposal nevertheless shows a strong desire to take meaningful legislative action in the fight against climate change, a desire that finally seems to be turning into concrete plans in continental Europe.

Toymakers Take the Lead on Sustainable Plastics by Kevin Ireland

Plastics are seemingly the ideal raw material for toys. They’re relatively inexpensive, easy to clean, durable, and can be molded into just about anything a child’s imagination is capable of cooking up. While wood, textiles, and metals can no doubt still be found in your average toy box, these materials have largely been supplanted by the now-ubiquitous plastic toy. Teethers, rattlers, stack toys, and other early childhood toys especially are all reliably made from plastics these days. But the mass production made feasible by the qualities above has created its own set of problems. As will surprise no one familiar with mass consumption and its green backlash, the products we make—plastics in this case—are prone to unintended consequences. Environmental degradation, exposure to harmful chemicals, and waste plague all industries. But given the ubiquity of plastic toys in stores, classrooms, and nurseries, the toy manufacturing industry faces the twin prospects of having a uniquely massive carbon footprint and the severest consequences for a vulnerable userbase if it neglects to make a change to more sustainable plastics. Many of the chemicals used to give plastic their flexibility have been shown to be endocrine disruptors and linked to the development of tumors, birth defects, and developmental disorders. Both the United States and the European Union have had a ban on the use of certain types of phthalates for years. Especially for young children, there is a fear that chewing on or heating the toys can exacerbate the harmful effects of exposure to chemicals like phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA),

Green Dot Bioplastic

A toy truck designed by Luke’s Toy Factory and made from Green Dot Bioplastic Terratek WC, a material made from wood and recycled plastic.

and heavy metals. Removing these chemicals, as well as others like PVC, should be a major thrust for toymakers looking to avoid exposing children to potentially harmful substances during the important period of early childhood development. Luckily, toymakers are in fact exploring options for using more sustainable plastics over petroleum-based incumbents. The following are some of the most promising spins on an old material, both from a sustainability and performance perspective, that toymakers are exploring with some success: • Bio-based plastics like PLA, PHA, and starch polymers made with renewable feedstocks instead of petroleum-based feedstocks used in traditional plastics for toys that do not deplete our finite natural resources. • Biocomposite plastics combine natural fibers or wood flour with recycled, biodegradable, or biobased plastics to create durable, weather-resistant toys.

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Idea Lab Noteworthy • Biodegradable plastics like PLA, PHA, or compostable soft plastic elastomer can be used to make toys that can be returned to nature when their useful life has ended. Once toymakers begin exploring options for less toxic materials, they often also find an unexpected marriage between sustainability and performance. Biocomposite materials, which utilize natural fibers such as wood pulp, flax, and starch, can bring performance characteristics such as durability, natural feel, and even buoyancy to the fore. Exploring sustainable plastics made with biocomposite materials gives toymakers a degree of flexibility and chance for creativity that’s lacking even with already versatile traditional plastic formulations. Green Dot Bioplastic, based in Kansas, is one manufacturer of bioplastics and biocomposites working with toymakers to utilize more sustainable plastics. Recently, Green Dot Bioplastic partnered with toy manufacturers Luke’s Toy Factory. The company was looking for a biocomposite material for toy trucks and trains. They wanted something with a natural wood look and feel that could also be injectionmolded to make the parts of the vehicle. They needed a material that could be colored to avoid the problem of peeling paint and also wanted a material that would be durable, even if left outside. In response, Green Dot Bioplastic provided Terratek WC, a material that meets all of these requirements. The wood–plastic composite combines wood and recycled plastic in a small pellet form, which is ideal for injection molding. Green Dot Bioplastic is working with a number of other toy manufacturers on similar products, in an effort to produce our favorite toys from materials that are friendlier to the environment and safer for children.

Douglas Scortegagna

Working shorter hours will leave employees more time to enjoy that which their reduced working hours serve to protect- the environment.

It’s Not Just a Headline— Working Shorter Hours Does Help the Environment Working shorter hours may save the environment. This recommendation from the UN International Resource Panel’s most recent report, published on July 20, made headlines around the world. Academic research and experts back it up. “Reducing average hours of work can reduce a country’s ecological impacts, including its demand for energy and material resources, as well as emission of pollutants. International organizations such as UNEP are beginning to pay attention to that evidence,” says Anders Hayden, an assistant professor at Dalhousie University and author of a book on work time, consumption, and ecology.

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The UN report notes that the amount of raw materials extracted from the Earth has tripled over the last 40 years, and that if the current trends continue by 2050, the planet will need 180 billion tons of material every year. This will consequently intensify climate change and pollution and exhaust the Earth’s natural resources. Working shorter hours will presumably help limit the expansion of economic output, which will in turn help reduce demand for energy and other material resources. One shortcoming with this solution is that it only affects affluent nations. “It could have indirect benefits for lower-income countries by helping to reduce the global resource demands and environmental impacts of the affluent, leaving more ‘ecological space’ for increased output and poverty reduction in the global South,” explains Hayden.

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Better Shelter

Better Shelter supports UNHCR in a shelter assembly training program at Karatepe transit camp in Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece.

What Design Can Do for Refugees An unprecedented 65.3 million people around the world are currently displaced, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. More than half of these people live in urban areas. Others are jammed into refugee camps, waiting desperately to go back home one day. Now, designers are working on solutions to improve their lives. In February, UNHCR, the Ikea Foundation, and the organization What Design Can Do launched a global competition for ideas that would accommodate and integrate refugees. Among the finalists announced in July was AGRIshelter, a 35-square

meter durable, biodegradable shelter unit that can be erected in just a few hours. Second place went to The Welcome Card, which stores all of the essential information for an asylum seeker in one digital card. Similarly, in the Netherlands, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers announced the winners of their ‘A Home Away From Home’ competition in June. One of the winners was The SolarCabin. The cabins have large, visible solar panels to generate electricity and are designed to feed the surplus energy back into the local community. This isn’t the first time that design has been instrumental in finding solutions for refugees. In 2015, Ikea and

UNHCR came together to design Better Shelter. The waterproof units for five are designed to last at least three years. Recyclable panels “were designed to withstand the strong winds yet be light enough to be shipped halfway around the globe in flat-packed boxes,” according to the official website. They are now used in Botswana, Niger, Greece, and Iraq, among other places. “The issue [of refugees] is too big for national governments, too big for NGOs, and too big for the divided European Union,” says Richard Van Der Laken, founder of the international platform What Design Can Do. “And although it’s certainly too big for designers, we can offer something that others cannot.”

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Schuster-Wallace, C. et al. (2016). Water and Women: A Collective Vision for the Future. Solutions 7(6): 10-14. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-and-women-a-collective-vision-for-the-future/

Envisioning

Water and Women: A Collective Vision for the Future

by Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, Susan Watt, Dennis Willms, Mariam Ali, Alice Bouman-Dentener, Jean Chamberlain, Jo-Anne Geere, Ania Grobicki, Diana S. Karanja, Rose Kawere, Maria Mutagamba, Eve Nakabembe, Sarah Nakalembe, Ross M. Pink, Virginia Roaf, Robertetta Rose, and Robert W. Sandford

This article is part of a regular section in Solutions in which the author is challenged to envision a future society in which all the right changes have been made.

lmost 25 years ago, women and men gathered in Dublin, Ireland, for an international conference on water and the environment. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development agreed upon at this event was a pivotal document six months before Rio and the Earth Summit.1 The Dublin Statement provided the first official recognition of women as central to “the provision, management, and safeguarding of water” (Principle 3). Participants of the Dublin conference started us on our current path towards realizing the complex and critical linkages between water and women. Most recently, through the Water for Life Decade,2 this path has led to Agenda 2030 (the Sustainable Development Goals), which includes global goals on both gender equality (SDG Goal 5) and water and sanitation (SDG Goal 6).3 This publication draws attention and clarity to the linkages between gender equality and water and sanitation. The contents of this special issue have been brought together, using different perspectives, to highlight the progress, solutions, and remaining challenges that exist at the interfaces between women and water since the Dublin Statement. Contributors have provided innovations in policy, human rights, the

monitoring, collection, and storage of water, meeting water, sanitation, and hygiene needs, and the valuing of water for reasons beyond its economic purpose. We now, as a collective, envision the future of women and water. Each of our authors responded to the following queries: • In 2041 (25 years from now), in relation to women and water, I think that water will… • In 2041 (25 years from now), in relation to women and water, I believe that women will… • In 2041 (25 years from now), within the context of women, my hope for water is… • In 2041 (25 years from now), I wish that women’s relationship with water will be…

• Water is valued for its social, health, and cultural aspects and not simply as an economic good; • Participatory, evidence-based action is the norm and not the exception; • Policies, practice, and research are mutually reinforcing and informing; • There is respect for and incorporation of local and traditional knowledge; • Gender disaggregated data demonstrate equity, for example, in levels of access to water and sanitation; and, • Access to water and sanitation is guaranteed and affordable for all and water is valued according to its economic, health, social, and cultural worth.

Water is now seen as a life-sustaining link for women, and women as a sustaining link for water, precipitating a shift from water carriers and fetchers to water stewards and managers. The following reflects their responses as our shared vision of a future in which solutions for women and water continue to improve this essential interface.

Women and Water in 2041 Now that it is 2041, our collective efforts have produced a dramatic transformation in the relationship between water and women:

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We now see a future emerging where a focus on women’s relationship to water has catalyzed change (Figure 1). However, this future is set against a backdrop of climate change which, if unchecked and not urgently dealt with by governments and the international community, will result in severely reduced water resources for large populations. As such, water scarcity and inequities in access will be a

Envisioning

UNU INWEH

Appropriate water, sanitation, and hygiene allows healthy children to unlock their learning potential.

major threat to human survival and may severely compromise the stability of nation-states unless we act now to mitigate against and limit climate change. At the local level, this will impact on how people prioritize water uses between water for domestic, livestock, food, and productive uses. Not only will this increase the burden currently borne inequitably by women and girls in rural areas in low and middle-income countries but also create an additional burden for marginalized women in high-income countries, as evidenced through historical lessons such as the California droughts and lead pipes in Flint, Michigan. While

impacts on large-scale conflict are debatable, at the local level, there are already examples of confrontations between neighboring communities as groups of people encroach on lands and water resources not previously contested. If we had allowed the status quo to continue unchecked, women and girls would still bear the brunt of the burden to secure water for their children, households, and families. It would take longer to collect water, and at boreholes, fights between women of all ages would destabilize the strength and integrity of what we know as community. Conflicts between people

with different needs and priorities would require deliberate efforts to mobilize collective, community-based actions in establishing, constructing, and politically managing safe and predictable water sources—especially in support of the most vulnerable in society (the marginalized, impoverished, and rural-based). Take Faith, for example. Faith was born in 2016 in a refugee camp in Southern Sudan. She now lives in a small village with her four children aged eight, six, two, and six months. Faith spends her days searching for food and water since the local borehole dried up in last year’s drought. She

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Envisioning

Leadership

• Networks • Development

Social

• Bear Burden • Use Less Water

Health & Well-being

W O M EN

Health & Well-being

FOR

Roles and Responsibilities

• • • •

Dignity Hygiene Menstrual Hygiene Stress-free

• • • •

Economic

Career Livelihoods Prosperity Empowerment

• Life Sustaining Link • Empowered • Demand Change

Catalyst for Change

• Independent & Fulfilling Lives • Every Woman

Catalyst for Change

Relationships

Safe Water Provisioning

Relationships

• • • •

New Generation Change Forefront Power

• Priority • Responsibility • Demand

Conflict

Water Managers Distinct Voice Monitor & Evaluate Decision-makers

Scarce Commodity

• • • •

Precious

W AT E

Increased Water Stress

Climate Change

Sustaining Force

Sufficient & Immediate Authors

Figure 1. Linkages between water and women.

searches the area surrounding the village for scraps of leaves and grasses that must do until the next rare humanitarian food drop occurs. Her children are frequently sick, always underweight, and often too tired to accompany her on her long foraging walks. Faith is illiterate and has received no formal education because she had to stay at home and help her mother with domestic chores, including fetching water for the family. She is unable to participate in any activity to generate income and is dependent upon the meager resources shared by the community. Faith had listened to the excited and eager anticipation of her mother that a clean, safe, and consistent water

supply for their village would bring food security and an opportunity for Faith and her siblings to attend school. Her mother’s optimism faded when they had to flee their village when the droughts came, and when the world appeared to abandon any hope that the conflict in the Sudan would be resolved. Faith now sees no future for herself and her children other than the persistent pains of grinding poverty. However, women and men have had an opportunity over the past 25 years to change the status quo. Women’s voices needed to be effectively heard; people needed to recognize their wisdom, strengths, roles, and responsibilities because business

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as usual was likely to make it difficult for women to have a distinct voice in water matters today, in 2041. Our hopes became the new reality; a time and place where groups of women emerged as social entrepreneurs, tackling the challenge of water access for a range of different priorities and uses. A time where water bodies, wetlands, and aquifers are valued for their social, aesthetic, cultural, ecosystem service, and economic roles. A time when women have innovated creative ways to harvest, store, and treat water, establish food security patterns, and created socially shared and collective engagement processes where everyone benefits, not simply

Envisioning

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

A newborn at Kawolo Hospital in Uganda. Water security is critical to a good start in life.

the privileged and economically rich. Water is now seen as a life-sustaining link for women, and women as a sustaining link for water, precipitating a shift from water carriers and fetchers to water stewards and managers. As gender equity advanced over the past quarter of a century, a shared and enhanced capacity emerged to deal with water challenges, to ensure universal access to WaSH, to realize the human rights to water and sanitation, and to share water burdens and responsibilities equitably. Water became not a domestic burden that women are culturally prescribed to secure and manage but an essential

resource that is the shared responsibility of men and women. In this manner, emerging examples of social resilience and strength have not only promoted economic growth, social development, and environmental integrity but also mitigated potential conflict and political challenges, shoring up institutions and governance structures. Our aspirations culminated in a hoped-for balance between the need to secure, preserve, and enhance our water resources and the need to protect, extend, and defend the rights of women and girls (Figure 2). Ultimately, our vision of a tomorrow where women do not have to

spend hours securing water, are not threatened by water-borne illnesses, and do not have to watch their children suffer unnecessary diseases and even die for lack of potable water has been realized. Solutions articulated 25 years ago gave us hope that, when leaders in their fields have such aspirations, water resources, water management, and WaSH in the world we want is actually within our grasp.4 This is why instead of Faith’s story, we are able to look to people like Charity to see how far we have really come. Charity was born in a remote village in southern Uganda in 2016. Her mother was a member of the first

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Envisioning

Water

Women

Sustains Life & Meets Needs

Water Rights Respected and Activated

No longer an issue of concern

water committee in her village and was instrumental in implementing a rainwater capture system in the village. Her uncle learned how to repair the pump on the borehole. Together, they provided adequate amounts of safe water to the entire village. This meant that she and her four siblings were free of the responsibility of seeking out and collecting water for the household. She finished public school in her village and attended high school at a regional facility. When married, she moved to her husband’s town where she helped the community to apply the lessons from her home community to get reliable, safe water. She helped to have the local school rehabilitated with the addition of latrines for both girls and boys and the provision of a new borehole that serviced the health center and the school. Both were equipped with handwashing stations that were supplied with soap by women in the town who produced a liquid soap sold in the local market. Charity also organized a local market garden, using fertilizers from the toilet waste. She now has three children of her own, all of whom attend school on a regular basis because they are not burdened with water carrying, poor sanitation, or chronic poor health. The school has good water and sanitation facilities, and Charity pays their school fees from the money she makes from her crops and from sewing clothes that she sells at the town market. The children are healthy and active and well on their way to becoming productive members of their community.

Sustains/Promotes Development

Equitable Common Good

Accessible & Affordable

Safe, Clean, Reliable Access & Less Energy Expended

Empowered & Roles Recognized

Social Entrepreneurs, Water and Food Security

HOPES Mutually Beneficial Shared Capacity Value Our Resources Societal & Political Respect Shared Roles & Responsibility Authors

Figure 2. The start of a journey—hopes for water and women from 2016.

References 1. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable

Water Partnership [online] (2015). http://inweh.unu.

4. Schuster-Wallace, CJ & Sandford, RW. Water in the

Development. UN Documents [online] (1992).

edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Women-Wash-

world we want—catalysing national water-related

http://www.un-documents.net/h2o-dub.htm.

and-Water-for-Life-Decade_WEB.pdf.

sustainable development. United Nations University

2. Schuster-Wallace, CJ, Cave, K, Bouman-Dentener,

3. United Nations. Transforming our world: the 2030

Institute for Water, Environment and Health and

A & Holle, F. Women, WaSH, and the Water for Life

Agenda for Sustainable Development [online]

United Nations Office for Sustainable Development

Decade. United Nations University Institute for

(2015). http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.

[online] (2015). http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/

Water, Environment and Health and the Women for

asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E.

uploads/2015/02/Water-in-the-World-We-Want.pdf.

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Schuster-Wallace, C. (2016). An African Male Perspective on Women and Water: An Interview with Ivan Tibenkana. Solutions 7(6): 15-17. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/an-african-male-perspective-on-women-and-water-an-interview-with-ivan-tibenkana/

Idea Lab Interview

An African Male Perspective on Women and Water: An Interview with Ivan Tibenkana Interview by Corinne Schuster-Wallace

van Tibenkana is a graduate of the Save the Mothers (STM) Masters in Public Health Leadership program at Uganda Christian University. As the former Chairman of Budondo subcounty, he has extensive knowledge of how water issues impact communities, and women in particular. He is currently the focal point person for public health in Busoga Kingdom, which includes issues of maternal, newborn, and child health. He is an advisor for the STM Mother Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.

What do you see as the key challenges women in your community face in relation to having access to water for domestic use, sanitation, and productive uses, for example crops for market stalls? When it comes to water for domestic use, women walk long distances to water points that can be more than three kilometers. Some water sources run dry due to weather changes, forcing the women to walk even longer distances, which complicates their health status and spending even more time on this activity. Then, long queues at the water sources, like boreholes, take much of the woman’s valuable time. Rampant fights for water can break out due to overcrowding at limited sources which are also shared with animals. Constant breakdown of the water sources makes water supply unreliable. Thus, women have to look for other alternative sources, which are usually ponds with dirty water. If there is no water point, women collect water from streams.

This water is dirty and unsafe for domestic use, polluted by human and animal wastes. Taking too long at the water source is taboo because their spouses become suspicious of what they may be doing. Water is usually collected late in the evening or at night, after doing the usual housekeeping chores, which puts women’s lives at risk, because most water sources are located in isolated places lined with bushes. Girl children who collect water in such risky places are exposed to defilement, rape, and even kidnap for sacrifice. Some have been exposed to pregnancy and early marriages. Traditionally, collection of water is the work of women and the girl child. This places an extra burden on them, who are already overloaded with work. Pregnant mothers are particularly challenged, because they have to carry more loads: the pregnancy, the breastfeeding baby, and the water container—these famous three loads. Sometimes, even when they are sickly, the women have to walk long distances in search of water, especially during the dry season. Water is important for maintaining good personal, domestic, and food hygiene. It is also used for safe management of solid and liquid waste like rubbish, animal wastes, and dirty water. However, there is insufficient water to use for hygiene, let alone sanitation purposes. Sanitation is not a priority, and there is a lack of water storage facilities for water meant for this purpose.

Janice Mar/Save the Mothers

Ivan Tibenkana

Water for production includes water collected for domestic animals, which are kept for subsistence and sale in the community markets. It also includes water for subsistence vegetable gardens. Given all the other responsibilities, there is limited time to collect water for this purpose. In addition to the limited types of water sources and how far away they are, water sources are contaminated and water-borne diseases are common (e.g., bilharzias (schistosomiasis) and guinea worms). Inefficient water collection and utilization systems waste a lot of water. How do you envision the role of men in meeting these challenges? Men must be actively involved in water collection, especially by providing simple means like bicycles. They must contribute funds and labor for

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Idea Lab Interview

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

“As household heads, men should ensure equitable sharing of water collection roles.”

the quick repair of water sources and support enforcement of bylaws to influence favorable water conditions for women. They can advocate for full or active participation of women in decisions that affect them in accessing water at the community level, for example allowing women to attend community meetings. As household heads, men should ensure equitable sharing of water collection roles, and support women in the proper allocation of water that benefits households and communities.

Men should also stop domestic violence against women and children. This will create an enabling environment in which women can openly discuss the challenges faced in accessing water with all stakeholders. Have challenges faced by women in your community changed over time? Yes. They have become complex, and more challenging. There are increased demands for water, yet water sources are drying up. Other sources of water have been introduced to cope with

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the increasing demand for water (e.g., piped water). However, this water must be paid for at the tap, or by monthly bills. This is not any good for the women as they do not control household money. Water from some of these sources must be boiled to make it safe for drinking, which places an extra burden on the women to look for fuel. Water user committees have been set up for every water source, and half of the committee members must be women. The treasurer should also be

Idea Lab Interview a woman, yet, even then, women are still too powerless to bargain for better water conditions in an environment dominated by men. Why do you think that this has happened? Rapid population increase has put more pressure on water resources, and commercialization of agriculture and increases in other economic activities compete with domestic use for water. Women’s productive and reproductive workloads make their participation in leadership very difficult, and changing gender roles and women’s emancipation have made men insecure, and so less supportive of women. At the national level, changing water policies are not effective, especially for the women’s cause. What are your hopes for women in relation to water over the next 25 years? My hopes for the future are that women can easily access adequate and quality water for all of their needs, at all times. This includes extending more viable sources of water to the communities. Women need to be aware of waterborne diseases, and the means of avoiding such water sources. There must be active and meaningful participation of women in decisionmaking and policy formulation on issues concerning water. Empowered women in water utilization leads to efficient use of available water. Not only must the reproductive role played by women be recognized as a duty, but, men must be involved in the provision of water for domestic use, and support the women in other duties. What are your hopes for men in relation to women and water over the next 25 years? My hope is that men are supporting women in ensuring provision of

water for domestic use. There must be increased expenditure on cheap water technologies at the household level, like rainwater harvesting, and equitable sharing of the water provision burden. I hope that there are clear strategies for provision and management of water that are appreciated by women and men, and that there are better water management structures, including roles and functions, where all stakeholders are fully represented. Above all, I hope that the essential role of women in the provision of managing and safeguarding water is recognized by men.

What are the most promising solutions you see? The most promising solutions are a combination of technology, policy, and practice. We need to continue developing low-cost water technologies, which increase the quantity, and quality, of water for domestic use. As population increases, water sources are stressed, therefore, there is a need to reduce wastage of available water resources. Women need to be involved at all levels of planning and implementation of water programs and gender mainstreaming in water provision and management needs to be increased. We need to change

There must be active and meaningful participation of women in decision-making and policy formulation on issues concerning water. Empowered women in water utilization leads to efficient use of available water.

Who are the most influential people for change, and what will bring them to act? Political leaders at all levels, but most especially in local government, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, and religious leaders, community leaders, and traditional and cultural leaders, can influence change. This can be achieved by involving all stakeholders in water provision programs, which will motivate all concerned members of the community to act. We must create awareness about the plight of women in accessing water among these stakeholders, which will also induce them to act.

the negative attitude of men about women becoming leaders, especially at the community level. Women should be supported to own property, which will empower them to take firm positions on issues that affect them, like water. Women must also be trained in operation and maintenance of water sources. Lastly, one of the major water and sanitation problems is faced by girls at school, where it reaches crisis levels, forcing some girls out of school during their monthly periods. It is a double tragedy for the future mother, for both at school and in the community, they suffer submissively.

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Sandford, R. and C. Schuster-Wallace. (2016). Hot and Bothered: Water and Women in a Warming World. Solutions 7(6): 18-23. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/hot-and-bothered-water-and-women-in-a-warming-world/

Perspectives Hot and Bothered: Water and Women in a Warming World by Robert Sandford and Corinne Schuster-Wallace

s a consequence of our growing numbers and needs, any meaningful chance of sustainable human presence on this planet now depends upon geopolitical stability. The factors that determine geopolitical stability have changed over time and continue to do so. In the 19th century, stable control of territory and the populations within were the principal determinants of whether peace or conflict prevailed. In the 20th century, however, reliable control of oil supply replaced occupied land as the dominant geopolitical determinant of peace, stability, and economic growth. While oil may remain important in some regions, the main determinant of peace and stability in changing global climate circumstances is water security. The quality and availability of water have become key elements and drivers of the global security agenda. Water security is as critical to food and energy security as it is to climate stability and is therefore central to societal stability and national sovereignty.1 Emerging issues related to a growing global water crisis are tied directly to widespread environmental degradation and the accelerated decline of natural Earth-system function globally. The hydrological system is driven by solar energy, which is why climate change is having such an impact on the timing, duration, intensity, and type of precipitation around the world. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and snow and ice reflect solar energy back to space, so changes in these also drive climate change.2 Issues of water security also have roots, however, in the failure of adequate governance; the breakdown of the rule of law; and, in the erosion of established national security principles. Women and

children mostly, but not exclusively, in poor regions of the world, disproportionately bear the consequences of these failures. Globalization of international governance further distances vulnerable women from opportunities to advance their own dignity and equity. Such people continue to be left out of decisions which are often made far beyond their borders yet relate to the economic future of the places in which they live. Fundamentally, there is also a difference when a gendered lens is applied to water use. Men are typically involved in the management and commercial use of water, while women are typically involved in the day-to-day use of water in the domestic realm. It is interesting to examine the differences between the United States and Europe in matters related to constitutional rights. The United States often promotes the rights of individuals above the rights of the collective. In Europe, decision processes are more likely to focus on bringing benefits to the most, not the least. American corporations have insisted on the notion that individual rights trump collective rights, and that their legal status as individuals should pertain in their dealings around the world. These, and other multinational corporations, have gone to great lengths to embed these individual rights in international trade agreements. In this way corporate interests have been allowed to supersede the interests of millions of people—women and children, disproportionately—who bear the consequences of, but never benefit from, actions that often lead to further threats to water security and climate stability where they live. This is a human rights violation

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on a global scale. In contrast, in Indigenous communities the right of the collective clearly supersedes the rights of the individual, and yet, their collective rights to water have often been threatened by other political and economic considerations. Further, in some countries, collective rights significantly disadvantage women. In patriarchal societies in particular, women are unlikely to own property, have direct access to money, or to compete in the water marketplace where water is commodified. This can create tensions between women’s priorities to satisfy domestic water needs, and access to resources to be able to meet these needs. While in many cultures, the male has a responsibility to provide for their family, a rights approach may not accurately portray a woman’s water reality. Another of the many ways disadvantaged women and children are further discriminated against is through government orchestration of land theft. In the wake of decades of efforts to reverse the effects of colonialism on human rights, new forms continue to emerge. Wealthy, but water-stressed countries have started quietly—and in some cases, secretly—buying up millions of hectares of agricultural land in other countries in order to assure future food security for themselves. Subsistence farmers, which in many cases are predominantly women, are displaced. The numbers of refugees from such places continues to grow. Meanwhile, speculators, terrorists, and criminals are lining up around the world to exploit global food and water scarcity. If current trends persist, conflict over water and food is likely to be widespread. Women and children will

Perspectives

NASA

Surface temperature trends captured in February 2016.

not escape this conflict; nor will they escape greater extremes in climate variability. While the link between recurring extreme weather events and the challenges of maintaining critical physical and social infrastructure in developing countries has been noted by organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank,3-5 the extent to which climate disruption has begun not just to slow, but to reverse economic development, was not recognized as a global economic threat until recently. It is now recognized that no country, rich or poor, will be spared impacts associated with hydroclimatic change. Unfortunately, these impacts will not be distributed evenly within any affected country. We are not all in this together. With respect

to hydro-climatic change, the actions of some are making life difficult, if not impossible, for others. Between 2008 and 2012, more than 140 million people were displaced because of natural disasters. In 2013 alone, natural disasters forced 22 million people from their homes, five million more than crossed borders because of conflict. The world is beginning to take notice of environmental refugees. As of January 2016, 4,840,555 Syrian refugees (50 percent women and 25 percent children) streamed out of war zones, in part, created by drought—with conflicts involving water growing. Currently, the number of people on the move as a result of such conflicts stands at 1.5 times the number on the move at the beginning of World War II. In addition,

an estimated 7.6 million Syrians have been displaced within their homeland.6 What we have not understood, until now, is the extent to which the fundamental stability of our political structures and global economy are predicated on relative hydrologic predictability. As a result of the loss of relative hydrologic stability, political stability, and economic stability, a number of regions in the world are now at risk. We are only now beginning to understand how complex this issue has become, and how much of a further impact this will have on women and children. Water scarcity and resulting food crises are now directly affecting national and regional security. The terrible violence rocking Syria and

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Perspectives the spill-over effects into Europe in 2015 did not start as a war; it started as five years of drought that contributed to the sparking of a war. During that war, all established rules related to warfare and water suddenly changed. The conventional wisdom of the latter part of the 20th century, established by water experts Peter Gleick and Aaron Wolf, that nations are more likely to cooperate than to go to war over water, evidently does not extend to non-state terrorist organizations. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) immediately fought for control of dams and water supplies.7 In Iraq, the water infrastructure of the country had already been largely destroyed by the American-led invasion in 2003. In Syria, 35 percent of all water treatment plants have been damaged by the war. By controlling strategic assets like water, as a nonstate actor ISIS has proven that it can, with limited funds, resources, and logistical support, significantly increase its military capacity in a conflict. ISIS is using control of water as a vehicle of extortion, a financial asset, and a weapon of war. Government troops fight back by cutting off water to areas under control of ISIS, further hurting innocent civilians, thereby exacerbating the conflict. Military groups in Syria have already gone so far as to destroy pipelines to refugee camps, directly contributing to typhoid outbreaks and other disease threats. ISIS also demonstrated it was not above using chlorine from water treatment plants as a weapon of chemical warfare.8 At the time of this writing, ISIS had control over areas it did not occupy, but which were dependent upon the water and electricity sources over which they had control. According to the Strategic Foresight Group, while ISIS had control of the Mosul Dam, it controlled 40 percent of Iraq’s

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

A researcher at the National Water and Sewage Corporation in Uganda evaluates alternative wastewater treatment and management solutions.

wheat-growing capacity. Because it controlled the water necessary for oil production in Northern Iraq, ISIS was able to make USD$1 million per day from these operations alone. Moreover, the use of water as a weapon of war decreases flow in transboundary rivers, deteriorates water quality, and dries up water bodies, leading to land and soil degradation. As ISIS is demonstrating, targeting and using water resources as a weapon can cripple food supply, destroy local economies, and disrupt water security and climate stability to such an extent that, irrespective of military strength, the long-term adverse effects are such that there could be little of meaningful consequence to rule over even if you win such a conflict.9 The impacts can, and do, spill over into other countries, as evidenced by the Syrian exodus of refugees, most of

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whom are women and children. On a much less dramatic, but still human, scale in North America, water insecurity is manifest through toxic levels of lead in drinking water supplies in Flint, Michigan, drinking water woes in Toledo, Ohio, and the imminent ecological deterioration of approximately 24,500 km2 of water in Manitoba, Canada, which, if it continues on its current trajectory, may no longer be able to support subsistence, commercial, or recreational fisheries and related economic activities in coming decades unless action is taken immediately to reduce current rates of excess nutrient in-flows.10 In 2013, the Global Nature Fund declared Lake Winnipeg the most threatened lake in the world.11 Another form of water insecurity is the Band-Aid solution of drinking water advisories and large-scale bottled water relief supplies for Indigenous communities

Perspectives

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

Water security means that women like these at a market in Uganda can sell homegrown vegetables to augment their income.

in Canada. While not precipitating a mass exodus, people (women) face a choice of staying, and possibly exposing their families to unnecessary risks, or uprooting their families in search of a better life.

Women Are All In This Together: Reforming from the Inside Out The problems are not going away. In fact, they are likely to get worse before getting better. Over the past decade, it has been generally held that, perhaps miraculously, the world population was somehow going to level off and stabilize around nine billion people, providing defined goal posts for sustainable development and a defined burden on existing off of our finite

water resources. However, the goal posts have moved, as should have been anticipated. As women continue to exercise their rights of the UN Charter (life, liberty, and security of person),12 this positions water at a meeting point through which women may be able to realize many of their rights—including the right to personhood—within which are embedded the rights to education, health, and being heard. Several large-scale movements are currently underway to redress water insecurity. One is in the Lake Winnipeg Basin in Manitoba, Canada. Recognizing the complex and confounding reasons and sources of pollution that have driven the Lake to the brink of extinction, concerned individuals have created a

new approach to restoring the lake’s functionality. There have been two instrumental changes that have led to this transformation in approach. The first is that, building upon dialogues emerging from the ecologically aware in civil society (a traditionally female-driven space that is more open to realizing the priorities, sensitivities, and skills of women), the economic implications (and liabilities) of a looming ecological disaster helped to move decision-making out of the realm of the private sector and government (a traditionally male space) and into a shared realm. This transition means that the water dialogue embraces social and economic considerations in promoting the environmental restoration and protection of Lake Winnipeg.

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Perspectives As water crosses sectors, societies, and social groups, the resulting broader engagement and ownership of the issues and solutions emerges from the fact that they make demands of everyone, are relevant to everyone, and draw on the innovative capacity of everyone. The second instrumental change has involved moving beyond environmental messages which only resonate with those who are committed to protecting and promoting the environment, to messages that resonate with others. Examples include messages around property values being tied to the quality and visual aesthetics of the lake. As a result, actions such as not using fertilizers on lawns at cottages, using rain barrels, and ensuring that septic systems are maintained are receiving greater uptake.13 The executive director of the program, Colleen Sklar, has been instrumental in carrying this charge. This woman has demonstrated the tenacity and broad thinking to maintain momentum, link complementing initiatives, and drive others to join her in action. The water crisis that came to light in 2015 in Flint, Michigan exemplifies the difficult situation that exists in the United States, and in Canada as well, with respect to the deterioration of aging water infrastructure. When the cash-strapped municipality of Flint fell into emergency receivership, it decided to save money by taking its drinking water from the Flint River, rather than an established water source that treated water in a manner that prevented lead from leaching from pipes into the water supply. A state of emergency was declared eighteen months later, when elevated levels of lead were found in the city’s drinking water. Though no safe lead level has been formally identified, the harmful effects of lead, especially on pregnant woman and in children, are well understood. In the aftermath,

all levels of government—local, state, and federal, including the US Environmental Protection Agency— were accused of ignoring, denying, or employing public relations tactics to cover up their role in exposing 6,000 to 12,000 children to high lead levels in their drinking water. The impact was not evenly distributed among the populace. According to the 2010 US census, eight percent of the population of Flint are under the age of five,14 almost 60 percent are of black or African American heritage,15 and more than 40 percent live in poverty. Of these, the largest population group living in poverty is 25-to-34-year-old females (i.e., women of child-bearing age), and the largest ethnic group living in poverty is Black or African American.16 It was these people who would have been hard pressed to afford alternative water sources, had they even known there was a serious problem with their water supply. Beyond the emergency response of bottled water and water filters, work is underway to replace lead piping in the distribution line. This is supported by public health education and outreach, free child screening for lead poisoning, food programs in schools to provide access to fruits and vegetables that reduce lead uptake, and pre-made formula through nutrition programs. Longer-term solutions, while not concrete, will work to improve the quality of life for Flint residents. In the interim, task forces and an interagency co-ordination mechanism should provide essential sustainability that goes beyond the immediate emergency status. It is noteworthy that key roles to redress the poor decision making and consequent health burdens, borne by Flint’s children, are held by women: the new water plant supervisor, JoLisa McDay, and Mayor Karen Weaver, who campaigned on the issue of water quality.

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Final thoughts Water security, food security, and climate security are inseparable in terms of human well-being, equity, and social justice; one is implicit in the others. Water, food, and climate security are critical elements of sustainability. Without stable water and climate regimes, sustainability will forever remain a moving target. We have to be ready for anything and we should expect that the people who will be hit hardest will be vulnerable women and their children. We must also remember that women are resourceful, powerful in the collective, and occupy different spaces than men because of their socially constructed gender roles and responsibilities. Priority areas for increasing gender diversity to harness women’s knowledge, values, and experiences include education and community engagement, fiscal policies and insurance, infrastructure management and utilities, and science and governance.17 Can we manage water differently, and, in so doing, make the world a better and fairer place for women? Yes. We must. What it will take, however, is public and government commitment, strong political will, and persistent and creative leadership. By managing water as if equity of access and distribution matter as much as quality, the road becomes open for reconciliation to correct the mistakes of the past, and for collaboration on a better, more secure, more just, and ultimately, far more sustainable future, not just for women, but for everyone. Is there any reason we can’t start down that road—own that river— together, now? These innovative and transformative approaches, which build upon the knowledge and skills of women to protect, restore, and mitigate water security, have to become the norm and not the exception.

Perspectives In the end, the entire human population on Earth is one. We are not simply tribes and nations [a.k.a. men and women] that operate in competing spheres. If we are to solve the crisis in the nexus, we will have to act in concert as one overall system, and learn to co-operate and support each other in ways that we have never thought of before. For better or worse, we are all in this together. —The Climate Nexus18

References 1. Wake up before it is too late: Make agriculture truly sustainable now for food security in a changing climate. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [online] (2013). http://unctad.org/en/ pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=666. 2. Adoption of the Paris Agreement. United Nations [online] (2015). https://unfccc.int/resource/ docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09.pdf. 3. Hutton, G & Varughese, M. The Costs of Meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Targets on Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. Water and Sanitation Program [online] (2016). www-wds.worldbank.org/external/ default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/0 2/08/090224b08415bdcc/1_0/Rendered/PDF/ The0costs0of0m0ene000summary0report.pdf. 4. Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. United Nations [online] (2016). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ post2015/transformingourworld. 5. Schuster-Wallace, CJ & Sandford, R. Water in the World We Want. United Nations University [online] (2015). http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2015/02/Water-in-the-World-We-Want.pdf. 6. Syria Regional Refugee Response: Inter-agency

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

A water sculpture in the humid tropical biome at the Eden Project in the U.K.

Information Sharing Portal. UNHCR [online] (2016). http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php. 7. Strategic Foresight Group. Water and Violence: Crisis of Survival in the Middle East (Strategic Foresight Group, Mumbai, India, 2014): 9. 8. Strategic Foresight Group. Water and Violence: Crisis of Survival in the Middle East (Strategic Foresight Group, Mumbai, India, 2014): 9. 9. Strategic Foresight Group. Water and Violence: Crisis of Survival in the Middle East. (Strategic Foresight Group, Mumbai, India, 2014): 16. 10. Lake Winnipeg Research Consortium Science Committee Report (May 2016). 11. Lake Winnipeg named world’s most threatened lake this year. Global Nature Fund [online] (2013). http://

www.globalnature.org/36067/Home/Press/Press-

15. Rastogi S, Johnson TD, Hoeffel, ME & Drewery, MP

Archives/resindex.aspx?newsid=1573&newsrefid=3

Jr. The Black Population: 2010. United States Census

6067&row=0&newsrefaddcoid=&nafrom=&nato=.

Bureau [online] (2011). http://www.census.gov/prod/

12. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. United Nations [online] (2016). http://www.un.org/en/ universal-declaration-human-rights/.

cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf. 16. Data USA: Flint, MI. Data USA [online] (2016). http:// datausa.io/profile/geo/flint-mi/#income.

13. Do What Matters: Lake Friendly Practices + Actions

17. O’Rioroan, J & Sandford, RW. The Climate Nexus:

at the Cottage. Lake Friendly [online] (2016). http://

Water, Food, Energy and Biodiversity in a Changing

www.lakefriendly.ca/#!do-what-matters-at-your-

World (Rocky Mountain Books, Victoria, British

cottage/c4hq.

Columbia, 2015).

14. Quick Facts: Flint City, Michigan. United States

18. O’Rioroan, J & Sandford, RW. The Climate Nexus: Water,

Census Bureau [online] (2016). http://www.census.

Food, Energy and Biodiversity in a Changing World (Rocky

gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/2629000,00.

Mountain Books, Victoria, British Columbia, 2015).

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de Albuquerque, C. and V. Roaf. (2016). Women and WaSH: The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation. Solutions 7(6): 24-31. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/women-and-wash-the-human-rights-to-water-and-sanitation/

Perspectives Women and WaSH: The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation by Catarina de Albuquerque and Virginia Roaf

Sanitation and Water for All

Sanitation and Water for All partners from around the world come together to discuss progress towards universal access to WaSH.

omen and girls tend to experience and manage access—and the lack of access—to water and sanitation differently from men and boys. The traditional role of women in society, particularly with respect to management of the home and women’s role as carers, means that they often have a greater need in terms of access to water and sanitation services compared to men. And yet women and girls are often prevented from participating in decision-making related to their access to water and sanitation. Women’s generally lower economic and political power in comparison

to men leaves them with reduced choices in how they access services. Female-headed households tend to be poorer and located in more precarious places, such as informal settlements or low-quality housing, compared to households that are led by two adults. This impacts the accessibility, quality, affordability, and acceptability of services available. The needs of menstruating women and girls are also seldom considered in the provision of services, particularly outside the home in schools or other institutions. The lack of access to adequate sanitation in the home, which often leads to people

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being forced to defecate in the open, has a different social and cultural impact on women and girls’ health and safety, due to their status within most societies. These factors directly affect gender equality and women and girls’ ability to enjoy their human rights. Gender inequalities often stem from deeply entrenched customs and behaviors that tend to limit women’s participation in social and economic development. Using the lens of women’s rights, and human rights more generally, helps to understand, highlight, and correct inequalities in the access to water and sanitation

Perspectives experienced by women and girls. As Hillary Clinton so clearly put it over 20 years ago in Beijing, “It is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights… human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”1 Gender inequalities are exacerbated by other social and cultural inequalities based on religion, caste, class, or income. For example, in India, there is often discrimination regarding who is allowed to use public water and sanitation services. Women and girls of lower caste or women who are menstruating may not be permitted to use the same well as higher caste women, or must wait for others to finish using the well before they can fetch water. In the American city of Detroit, Michigan, recent disconnections from safe water services have been predominantly experienced by poorer and female-headed households, and by people of color. There have been several reports in international news in recent years highlighting the danger of sexual assault to women and girls leaving the home to relieve themselves in fields or go to public toilets. In many cases, the accused get away with the crime, demonstrating not only a disregard for the individual who has been attacked but also a wider social and cultural disregard for women and girls. Women’s lives are fraught with danger simply for needing to fulfill a bodily function. These issues impact women and girls globally, and will continue to so long as discrimination, inequalities, and stereotyping remain entrenched across societies. While better access to water and sanitation will always lighten the domestic load, it will not be sufficient if women and girls still bear the bulk of the responsibility for these duties. Any approach to improving access to domestic water and sanitation services must also include a challenge to the

UNU INWEH

A grandmother shows off her new toilet in the Mukono District in Uganda. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2016 | Solutions | 25

Perspectives stereotype of the woman or girl in the home and serving the family, rather providing images of women and girls fulfilling a broad range of social, cultural, and economic roles. While there is no simple solution to improving the lot of women and girls and their access to water and sanitation, the human rights framework offers an analysis that reveals the structural causes of inadequate water and sanitation service provision, and offers very specific solutions that can contribute to improving the status of women and girls with respect to equal access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH).

Legal Context and Developments The human rights to water and sanitation have risen dramatically in importance over the last decade. In 2002, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted a document that explained for the first time, how central access to water is for the right to health and the right to an adequate standard of living and, as such, should be considered as a right itself.2 This was followed by a statement on the right to sanitation in 2010.3 Since this time, huge progress has been made in defining, promoting, and implementing the human rights to water and sanitation. Human rights were developed in order to protect vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed individuals and groups, but they also provide a useful framework for understanding, analyzing, and addressing the continuing lack of access to water and sanitation. In particular, the human rights principles of nondiscrimination and equality, participation, access to information, and accountability are key not only for the human rights to water and sanitation but also for realizing women’s rights more generally.

The UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and Human Rights The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for the integrated implementation of the entirety of the 2030 Agenda and put human rights principles at the center, with the rights to water and sanitation gaining a specific mention.4 The SDGs recognize the importance of human rights for eliminating gender inequality (Goal 5) and for reducing inequality in general (Goal 10). Within Goals 3 and 4 on health and education, there are also requirements to achieve gender equality. It is therefore both crucial and timely to be discussing how gender inequalities are limiting progress in social and economic development, specifically in the water and sanitation sectors, and how both gender inequalities and poor sanitation and water impact so many other development issues. Increasing gender equality can only have a positive impact on access to water and sanitation for women, and vice versa. Greater gender equality leads to women and girls having a greater say in how services are delivered, improving the likelihood that services meet their various needs. Further, improving water and sanitation services for women and girls will improve gender equality, given the importance of water and sanitation to fulfilling traditional roles of women and girls. But this must be seen holistically; improving water and sanitation for women and girls without simultaneously challenging the stereotypical vision of women as caregivers will not lead to the gender equality demanded by Goal 5. The human rights to water and sanitation include specific obligations for states, including the immediate obligation to ensure that human rights are realized in a participatory, accountable, and nondiscriminatory way, and a longer term obligation to progressively

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realize the human rights to water and sanitation using the maximum available resources. This demands structural changes that will require the reform of government institutions, but can also be achieved through political will and good governance, with the engagement of all stakeholders. At the global level, the Sanitation and Water for All partnership is aligning all activities with the requirements of the SDGs, including those stemming from human rights norms and principles, in order to work towards eliminating inequalities in access to water and sanitation. Through a multistakeholder process, partnerships between states, and processes and systems that promote nondiscrimination, participation, access to information, and accountability, the Sanitation and Water for All agenda provides an opportunity to openly discuss with decision-makers and civil society the structural reasons for inequalities in access to water and sanitation and seek appropriate solutions. This is a long and challenging process. Neither human rights principles, nor a partnership that promotes open and transparent sharing of ideas, solutions, and challenges will work in isolation. But collective experience and a will to do things differently through dialogue and partnership can contribute to challenging the gender and other inequalities that currently exist.

Unpacking the Human Rights Principles to Promote Women’s Equal Access to WaSH Nondiscrimination and equality are

central to all international human rights treaties. They include extensive provisions to protect against discrimination and ensure equality, and require that the situation of women and girls is examined and addressed.

Perspectives

Sanitation and Water for All

Ministerial Dialogues at the Sanitation and Water for All High-level Meeting 2012.

Inequality between men and women can be seen in every country, in every culture and religion, and within the majority of households. The gender roles held by women and men, and girls and boys, often contribute to the stigma, discrimination, and stereotyping that affects how people access water and sanitation in high-, middle-, and low-income countries. The human rights to water and sanitation require that appropriate safe water and sanitation services are accessible and affordable for all, particularly for those who are marginalized and/or vulnerable. The lack of adequate access afforded to so many women and girls deepens other social inequalities. Women and girls who belong to minorities, such as the Roma in many European countries,

or particular language groups in parts of Southeast Asia, will suffer from two-fold discrimination. Dalit women and girls are more likely to work as street sweepers (a specific euphemism for emptying bucket latrines at homes and offices in India)—and this leads to a significant stigma being attached to them. A lack of access for already stigmatized groups can directly lead to a lack of hygiene, increasing the stigma felt by those individuals and groups and reinforcing negative stereotypes. Ensuring that girls have equal opportunities to receive an education requires many different approaches, including some very basic considerations such as access to adequate latrines in schools, so that girls can feel confident about spending a

day in school. There is considerable work to be done in many countries on attitudes towards menstruation, and this is increasingly being tackled through raising awareness, not just among girls but also their male peers, in order to normalize menstruation through familiarity with the biological processes of the menstrual cycle. Likewise, there is too little attention paid to conditions related to reproductive health, such as fistula, for which there is often a simple operation if it is caught early enough, but if not, often leads to distressing incontinence. Due to this lack of attention, and in combination with a lack of access to adequate water with which to wash regularly, women suffering from fistula are often abandoned by their families.5

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Perspectives Thus, the lack of access to water and sanitation suffered by many women and girls is frequently a symptom of broader inequalities within society. States must identify these inequalities and recognize the frequently more significant impact that a lack of these services has on the lives of women and girls. The next step is for states to review existing policies and legislation that may have an impact on women and girls’ ability to access water and sanitation. The solutions that work for women and girls may not be the same as those that are thought to be necessary to bring improvements to achieve universal access to water and sanitation. Thinking about the problem specifically for women and girls may well identify solutions that would otherwise remain hidden. For example, in some countries, women are not supposed to use the same latrine as men, either due to menstruation, taboos, or cultural norms related to the status of women. This is currently hidden by most monitoring systems—it is assumed that having a toilet within a compound ensures that all people living there are using this toilet. To reach all residents, including the women and the girls, it would be necessary to find a different solution. One could be to build two toilets, or alternatively, it might be possible to enter into a dialogue with the community in an effort to overcome the taboos that necessitate two toilets. As with many forms of discrimination and stigma, empowering women and girls through education and access to information, positive role models, and strengthening their ability to engage more broadly in cultural and social life assists them in confronting and challenging negative stereotypes about what women and girls are capable of—leading to further positive perceptions of their roles in society.

Legislation, policy, and regulation:

Achieving gender equality requires a full review of the gendered impact of legislation, policies, and regulatory processes relating to access to water, sanitation, and hygiene to ensure that these are not inadvertently leading to discriminatory practices. Policies that acknowledge that women and girls play a predominant role in managing water and sanitation for the household may unintentionally reinforce this role, rather than finding ways of breaking down gender stereotypes that would have a stronger impact on achieving gender equality. Changes in legislation must also be accompanied by measures that look to change institutions and social and cultural practices. Until states systematically examine how existing WaSH strategies impact women and girls, gender inequalities will remain firmly in place. Without this, states cannot meet their human rights obligations. Further, states must ensure that others, including private sector or civil society organizations, do not perpetuate inequalities through discriminatory practices. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women provides, in Article 5, to “modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.”6 Access to information is a human

rights principle, as well as a human right in itself. Information plays a crucial role in ensuring that people are able to understand what they are entitled to with respect to water and sanitation and how they can gain access to these services. Several factors

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impede women and girls’ adequate access to information on WaSH resources. These can include issues of illiteracy, of not understanding the language used, and exclusion from meetings where such issues are discussed. Ensuring that women and girls have the information that they need to access services and understand their rights requires both short- and longterm solutions. In the longer term, it is essential that girls have equal access to education, so that they can engage with the state in a meaningful way. In the shorter term, it will be necessary to work a little bit harder to ensure that women and girls are obtaining the information that they need in order to access services. This will include providing clear information in local languages. As women are often less literate than men, finding different ways of sharing this information will be necessary, such as targeted radio programs, local theatre, and posters that use simplified, gender-sensitive language and imagery. Of particular interest to women and girls will be straightforward information on menstruation and menstrual hygiene to help them both understand and manage their periods better. Normalizing menstruation is a significant step forward for women and girls to ensure that they are able to continue going to school and work and engage actively in cultural and social activities. Participation is essential to ensuring

that women and girls are able to engage meaningfully in the decisionmaking processes that impact their access to water and sanitation. In their role as the ‘second sex,’ securing opportunities for women to participate fully in relevant decisionmaking processes will require an examination of assumptions of who

Perspectives

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

A Kenyan girl drinks from an improved water supply at her school. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2016 | Solutions | 29

Perspectives

Sanitation and Water for All

Partners from Sanitation and Water for All’s six constituencies meet at biennial High-level Meetings.

can participate and how participation is effected, to get beyond the norms that work best for men. For example, women’s lives are often circumscribed by their domestic responsibilities and their duty to care for children, the sick, or older persons within the household. This may prevent them from travelling longer distances to meetings or participating at times of the day when the domestic burden is greatest. If women’s views are to be taken into account, participatory processes must explore ways of getting around this. Given the multiple layers of exclusion—women and girls with disabilities or from an ethnic minority will often have more problems engaging with decision-making processes—specific care must be taken that women and girls from all social and cultural groupings are able to participate.

An example of the effective inclusion of a marginalized group is the work done by the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committees on preventing violence against sex workers in West Bengal, India. These regulatory boards are made up of doctors, advocates, national human rights commissioners, local politicians and officials, and sex workers themselves in a number of red-light districts, working towards addressing systemic problems experienced by the sex workers.7 It is now common practice to require that women form at least 50 percent of any water user committee, to ensure that women’s needs are taken into account in decisions made around the use of water resources. While this is an absolutely necessary step, care must be taken that this is not simply a cosmetic measure. Women

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must not be side-lined within committees, but truly enabled to engage with discussions on the same level as men, and not expected to represent the views of their husbands or other male family members. Further, increasing the visibility of women as role models, such as women working as engineers or in other key sector jobs, can also have a positive impact on the acceptance of women as professionals and increase the institutional understanding of the difficulties that women and girls face within society. We have seen the positive impact that a female champion for sanitation can have on the engagement of women and the prioritization of sanitation within a national political process through the appointment and engagement of Minister Maria Mutagamba in Uganda from 2006

Perspectives to 2012, who is also a contributing author to this issue. The political leadership of women at the national level indicates the intention of the government to focus on women and girls, increasing the understanding of women and girls’ particular needs and given rights. Accountability: States are accountable

for the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. This takes two main forms: 1. monitoring of access to services, institutions, policies, and legislation; and, 2. accountability systems put in place for those instances where governments are not addressing inequality in access to services. • Monitoring: As has been explored in the section above on nondiscrimination and the elimination of inequalities, it is difficult to address inequalities effectively unless the inequalities are known, and their root causes understood. The root causes of gender inequalities are generally deeply embedded in culture and stereotypes of what men and women (and girls and boys) are allowed to do. For this reason, it can often be difficult to both identify and address inequalities, as they are often accepted as the norm. Household surveys often do not ask the right questions to identify these nuanced inequalities. More detailed surveys need to be carried out by culturally aware, trained individuals. Some data, such as who is using latrines at a household level, may be difficult to collect accurately under existing monitoring systems—but efforts must be made to understand and measure discriminatory or stigmatizing practices. Only with the existence of better data is it

possible to develop policies that are gender-sensitive and provide dedicated funding for gender-sensitive programming. • Access to justice: As inequalities in access to water and sanitation for women and girls are established through monitoring processes, access to justice must be available. This may be through complaints procedures managed by service providers or through independent bodies including regulators, national human rights commissions, and local authorities. While in theory, access to justice should be equally available to all people, the reality is that there are often hidden barriers that must be removed to ensure equal access to all. To remedy this, it is necessary to ensure that information about how to lodge a complaint is easily available in relevant languages. Service providers that are serious about responding to complaints will consider a range of measures such as free hotlines to call when there is a problem and focus groups that include a variety of users, with a particular focus on the engagement of women and girls. Where service providers are not able to address specific complaints, there are also courts that can consider violations of the human rights to water and sanitation. Again, care needs to be taken to ensure that barriers to accessing courts are removed and take into account the particular difficulties faced by women seeking justice. In some countries, historically and culturally, women are not expected to speak out on their own behalf and would traditionally be accompanied by a man to court. Women’s domestic responsibilities and frequently greater poverty will also prevent them from paying the necessary fees, travel, and time costs

to lodge complaints. Thus, focusing on the norms of behavior for women and girls, rather than the norms for men, will highlight approaches to assist women in achieving justice for failures of the state to ensure access to water and sanitation.

Final Thoughts While changing national legislation, strategies, and policies will have the broadest impact on women’s rights in regards to WaSH in the long-term, local authorities, service providers, and other development actors can achieve a great deal locally by applying a gendered lens to their practices. Organizations such as Sanitation and Water for All, as a global multi-stakeholder partnership, can bring lessons from a range of different perspectives, contexts, and countries on addressing gender inequalities. These lessons will play key and catalytic roles in supporting efforts to fully eliminate gender-based inequalities through national laws, policies, and action. References 1. Clinton, HR. Speech, United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (September 5, 1995). 2. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. General Comment No. 15 on the right to water (E/C.12/2002/11). United Nations [online] (2003). http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/gencomm/ escgencom15.htm. 3. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Statement on the right to sanitation (E/C.12/2010/1). United Nations (2010). 4. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ARes/70/1). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [online] (2015). https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/post2015/transformingourworld. 5. Bangser, M. Obstetric fistula and stigma. The Lancet 367: 535 (2006). 6. General Assembly resolution 34/180, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Article 5a). United Nations [online] (18 December 1979). http://www.un-documents.net/ a34r180.htm. 7. Crago, A. Our Lives Matter: Sex Workers Unite for Health and Rights (Open Society Institute, New York, 2008).

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Bouman-Dentener, A.M. (2016). The GWP Gender Strategy: Working on the Interface of Women and Water. Solutions 7(6): 32-37. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-gwp-gender-strategy-working-on-the-interface-of-women-and-water/

Perspectives The GWP Gender Strategy: Working on the Interface of Women and Water by Alice M. Bouman-Dentener

he Global Water Partnership (GWP) was established in 1996 to contribute to Integrated Water resources Management (IWRM) as a foundation for sustainable development. Social equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of GWP and considered indispensable for the sustainable use and management of water resources. The GWP developed its Gender Strategy in 2014 as a supplement to the overall strategy towards 2020 to address its role in advancing gender sensitive and women-inclusive water governance and management at all levels.1 The GWP gender strategy zooms in on the water and gender interface.

Why Work on the Water and Gender Interface? Water is in everything. It is not only needed for drinking, growing food, and personal hygiene but also for industrial processes and energy provision. Nature equally depends on water, and we, in turn, depend on healthy ecosystems for our survival and well-being. Being able to access sufficient and safe water to perform daily functions is key in overcoming poverty and building sustainable livelihoods. Today’s reality however, is that millions of people do not have this basic security. While statistics showing how this affects men and women differently are limited, it is easy to see that women and girls in the developing world are disproportionately affected and often literally carry the burden of daily water provision. Gender equality, like access to water and sanitation, is considered key for the development of a healthy and prosperous society. Gender

equality is not only about equal access to resources, but it also means women should have an equal voice in decision-making and that they fully take part in all sectors and spheres of society. Centering gender equality and women’s empowerment in the achievement of sustainable development has therefore been a recurrent theme in international development policies.

cooperation inclusively between sectors and transnationally.3 Despite such longstanding international agreements and calls for action, the gender and water agenda still lacks traction. There are pockets of success, such as the increased involvement of women’s civil society in water resources development and management through the Women for Water Partnership,4 the pan-African

Women-to-women networking on water-related development issues has furthermore resulted in many community-based and women-led projects that show a high degree of sustainability. A good 20 years have passed since the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 adopted the Beijing Platform for Action. This was a global agenda to empower women and ensure their contribution to sustainable development, including to the management and safeguarding of water resources. In terms of water more specifically, the central role of women in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water and their full participation as a stakeholder is prominently included in the Dublin Principles for Integrated Water Resources Management of 1992.2 Women’s involvement in water-related development efforts was also specifically called for in the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005–2015, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly to establish water

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gender strategy and policy of the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) that guides the work of the African Union members to mainstream gender in water policies and practice,5 and the work of the International Fund for Agricultural Development on women’s access to land and water and their participation in rural development projects.6 On the whole, however, under the Millennium Development Goal agenda of the past 15 years, emphasis has been on technical service provision; social equity and women’s inclusion as underlying principles for the sustainable use and management of water resources have not been addressed in a systematic way. A shift in perspective to an inclusive, gender-sensitive approach to water is required, which the GWP aims to support.

Perspectives

MostPhotos

A young woman carries water in a small village near Jaisalmer, India.

Water Security and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development The vision of the GWP is for a water-secure world.7 Under current population growth, rapid urbanization, increased conflict, and climate change, this is a growing challenge, especially as water security is much broader than just access to water for basic needs. It includes social, environmental, and economic dimensions of water availability and the management of water-related risks such as scarcity, floods, conflicts, and resource degradation. Water security requires reliable water delivery for all uses at acceptable prices, quantities, and quality and the protection of lives and livelihoods against water-related

disasters.8 In short, it centers water as the foundation and glue of sustainable development at large. In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For the next 15 years, this agreement will guide the efforts of countries and the international community to end poverty, promote human well-being, and protect the environment. It is an ambitious agenda that wants to ensure no one is left behind and that considers all of society engagement and partnership as a main driver for change.9 The 2030 Development Agenda re-emphasizes the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment to make such a participatory and inclusive approach

a reality on the ground. Goal 5—to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls—includes a commitment to boost women’s agency, which will benefit all the other development goals. There is also a dedicated goal for water, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6—ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. This reconfirms that water security is foundational in achieving food and energy security, social stability, economic prosperity, disaster risk reduction, and peace. According to the World Water Development Report 2015, “The principle of equity, perhaps more than any technical recommendation, carries with it the promise of a more water-secure world for all.”10 The GWP

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Perspectives

MostPhotos

A mother and child sit near a public drinking water tank in the Kavango region of Namibia.

gender strategy addresses the interface of the fifth and sixth SDG, which has a high, untapped potential to contribute to water security and equitable access, specifically the needs and challenges of those furthest behind. Access to water plays an important role in empowering poor and marginalized people, the majority of whom still are women and girls.

The GWP Gender Strategy: From Principles to Practice Water security and gender challenges vary globally. Countries fall on different parts of the ‘development spectrum’ and will all have different gender realities, development

priorities, capacities, and needs. The analysis of country-specific situations and an assessment of where efforts in the gender–water–development nexus may have strong impact on achieving the SDGs are important in ensuring effective outputs. This analysis will lead to tailor-made efforts under the overall framework that the GWP Gender Strategy presents. The GWP network consists of over 3000 partners in 182 countries that are structured around 85 Country Water Partnerships and 13 Regional Water Partnerships. Each have their own governance structures and work plans that translate the agreed GWP strategy into the priorities and

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working modalities of their countries and regions. The Intergovernmental Organisation GWPO facilitates the work of these GWP partners, predominantly through supporting and strengthening the Country and Regional Water Partnerships. While individual GWP partners may develop specific water and gender activities of their own, the work under the gender strategy concentrates on creating an enabling environment for gender-sensitive and women-inclusive water governance. Following the three GWP strategic goals, this is done through: 1) international and national agenda setting, awareness raising, and policy support; 2) creating

Perspectives the evidence-based knowledge for informed decision-making, for shaping policies, and translating policies into practice; and 3) creating strong multistakeholder partnerships that jointly develop the necessary action to ensure that women are not left behind and can fully benefit from and contribute to water resources use and management. Gender roles have a strong bearing on how and what women can contribute to achieving water security for all, both individually and as a social group. Given that stakeholder participation is a core business of GWP and that women are considered an important stakeholder group, the GWP Gender Strategy specifically zooms in on women as contributors to water security. There are various aspects to women’s inclusion in the water sector: gender parity amongst water professionals, equal participation of women in decision-making, and the use of the social capital of women’s networks for strengthening community participation and creating a strong civil society that can realize participatory water governance on the ground.11

(Inter)National Agenda Setting, Awareness Raising, and Policy Support Gender roles determine how women and men are affected differently by the development, use, and management of water resources. Thus, in countries and situations where there are striking gender roles, it is particularly important to view water policies and programs through a gender lens. A well-known example is the AMCOW gender strategy and policy, of which the GWP Regional Water Partnerships in Africa are an active partner in the development and implementation.12 This gender strategy and policy was developed jointly by state and non-state actors and now leads efforts to address the gender

gaps in water management, distribution, and access and to stimulate the full and equal participation of women in developing and executing water policies and programs. As a national-level example, the GWP gender strategy has sparked gender and water integration in Brazil, a country with longstanding commitment to IWRM and gender equality, with national policies and action plans in place for both. Water & Gender dialogues were organized by the National Water Agency (ANA), GWP Brazil, and the National Policy for Women of Brazil. This resulted in the creation of a gender committee, which focuses

Evidence-based Knowledge GWP creates and shares knowledge and tools for inclusive policies and plans. Gender Focal Points are tasked with addressing the gender dimension of GWP’s work. Knowledge generated in our diverse network of partners is evidence-based and informs decisionmakers and practitioners alike. The network has mechanisms for regular peer exchange between and within regions like, for instance, annual Regional Days and thematic policy dialogues. The diverse knowledge products feed into the global fora where international frameworks for action are shaped and agreed upon.

Social networks of women are generally built on trust and reciprocity, shared ethical norms, and mutual support, making them a valuable partner to develop local ownership and good water governance. on internal issues (e.g., establishing a gender-sensitive culture within the agency and including gender issues in all its programs, projects, and actions) as well as on external issues (e.g., promoting the recognition that women play a central role in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water). This committee will be linked to the board of ANA. Following this, other gender committees related to water resource secretariats have been or are in the process of being established throughout Brazil. With this, Brazil is creating an enabling environment to systematically address gender in water in a decentralized way, and with full inclusion of women. The GWP Gender Strategy has been translated into Portuguese and made available to all Lusophone countries.

Multi-stakeholder Partnerships for Consultation and Action GWP works through inclusive multistakeholder partnerships. Country and regional water partnerships offer neutral platforms for multi-stakeholder dialogue and facilitate cooperation, as talking to and learning from others creates trust and understanding. It also helps groups such as government agencies, scientists, technical experts, business communities, NGOs, women, youth, Indigenous people, farmers, and community-based organizations find common grounds for action. There are 85 countries in which GWP currently has an accredited Country Water Partnership. Strengthening these to promote women’s voices in national and local water dialogues will contribute to

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Perspectives

GWP Central Africa

World Water Day 2016 was celebrated on March 22, and GWP Central Africa marked the day with a special event.

national agenda setting that includes women’s needs and expertise in water programming. A Water Partnership in Sri Lanka presents an example of women leadership in ensuring the gender-sensitive and women-inclusive practice of GWP at national and subnational levels. NetWater, the network of Women Water Professionals in Sri Lanka and founding member of the Sri Lanka Water Partnership, has developed Gender & Water Dialogues that take place annually at the district level as an important activity of the

partnership since 2004. The deliberate inclusion of women’s civil society voices has led to gender sensitive and informed decision-making by national and local authorities. Women-to-women networking on water-related development issues has furthermore resulted in many community-based and women-led projects that show a high degree of sustainability. For instance, in the drinking water sector, the bottom-up movement of women’s participation, supported by the Sri Lanka Water Partnership, improved drinking water

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facility management and sanitation— including at schools—highlighted menstrual hygiene management, and spun off a set of other social and economic development initiatives such as home gardens for sustainable agriculture and cooperation with local business partners for women’s entrepreneurship. An important part of getting women included is strengthening women’s civil society so that they are equipped to participate on an equal footing. For this purpose, GWP signed a Memorandum of

Perspectives Understanding with the Women for Water Partnership (WfWP), a global women’s civil society network that empowers women’s grassroots work and enables their full participation in water governance at all levels. Social networks of women are generally built on trust and reciprocity, shared ethical norms, and mutual support, making them a valuable partner to develop local ownership and good water governance.13 In Pakistan, for example, the urban Karachi Water Partnership engages women’s networks as stakeholders in decision-making processes. The main aim was to promote good governance beyond just 50 percent involvement of women, empowering them to be part of a more efficient system. There were training and discussion workshops to raise awareness and capacity. These networks of women have played an instrumental role in implementing water-demand management initiatives and in discussions with government ministries on enhancing water laws, which now reflect more equitable resource sharing.

Final Thoughts Gender is a complex and multifaceted issue, and GWP is a diverse and multilayered network that works on integrated approaches in water management, which is also complex in itself. To include gender in water-related work in a relevant and manageable way, assessing the country-specific situation is an important first step. Bridging the gap between conceptual understandings of gender issues and everyday realities of accessing and using water is the ultimate challenge. It can only be realized by involving affected people to articulate their issues and participate in creating solutions. Serious pre-investment in the strengthening of these local

actors is vital. In this context, adequate support should be given to women’s civil society to engage with gender and water-sector specialists as equal collaborators in water-related development efforts. Without this commitment, we will not have the bottom–up processes that complement the top–down policy processes, and the realization of our ambitions for full social engagement and partnership will fail. The successful integration of gender in water-related development efforts relies on ownership, commitment, leadership, and perseverance. It is a slow process of social transformation and mind-set change. A strong and multi-stakeholder partnership that initiates and fuels this process is indispensable. And it is imperative that women are an equal partner in this process and strengthened—where needed—to play their role as agents of change. Acknowledgements The author is grateful to the GWP secretariat; in particular, gender focal point Ankur Gupta for constructive contribution to this article. A special word of thanks goes to Gisela DammForattini of GWP Brazil and Kusum Athukorala of GWP Sri Lanka for providing the examples from their countries. Last but not least, my highest appreciation for all partners and individuals in the GWP family for their past and ongoing efforts to making gender sensitive and women inclusive water management and governance a reality the ground.

3. Water for Life 2005–2015. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [online]. http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/background. shtml. 4. Schuster-Wallace, CJ, Cave, K, Bouman-Dentener, A & Holle, F. Women, WaSH and the Water for Life Decade. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and the 5. Women for Water Partnership [online] (2015). http://inweh.unu.edu/women-wash-water-lifedecade/. 6. AMCOW Policy and Strategy for Mainstreaming Gender in the Water Sector in Africa. African Ministers Council on Water [online] (2011). http:// amcow-online.org/images/Resources/24%20 June%20AMCOW%20Eng.pdf. 7. Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Scaling up note. IFAD [online] (2015). https://www. ifad.org/documents/10180/c839ee4c-ff4b-49c4-aae94c20b3e37dfb. 8. Global Water Partnership: A key global asset. Briefing note. GWP [online] (2016). http://www. gwp.org/Global/About%20GWP/Strategic%20 documents/GWP-Strategic-Position-2030Briefing%20Note-pdf.pdf. 9. Sadoff, CW et al. Securing Water, Sustaining Growth: Report of the GWP/OECD Task Force on Water Security and Sustainable Growth. University of Oxford [online] (2015). http://www.gwp.org/ Global/About%20GWP/Publications/The%20 Global%20Dialogue/SECURING%20WATER%20 SUSTAINING%20GROWTH.PDF. 10. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1. UN [online] (2015). http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc. asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&referer=http://www. un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainabledevelopment-goals/&Lang=E. 11. WWAP (United Nations World Water Assessment Programme). The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015: Water for a Sustainable World. UNESCO [online] (2015). http://unesdoc. unesco.org/images/0023/002318/231823E.pdf. 12. Rogers, P & Hall, A. Effective Water Governance. GWP-TEC background paper #7 [online] (2003). http://www.gwp.org/en/ToolBox/PUBLICATIONS/ Background-papers/. 13. Salo, E. Gender and Water Policies in Africa: Synthesis Report. Water Research Commission and Global Water Partnership [online] (2015).

References

http://www.gwp.org/Global/Events/WWW%20

1. GWP Gender Strategy. Global Water Partnership [online] (2014). http://www.gwp.org/Global/ About%20GWP/Strategic%20documents/GWP%20

2015/Concept_2_Gender%20Policies%20in%20 Africa%20EK_V9.pdf. 14. Bouman-Dentener, AM. Women as Agents of Change in Water; reflections on experiences

Gender%20Strategy.pdf. 2. Dublin Principles 2 and 3. The Dublin Statement

from the field. Chapter 3. Women for Water

on Water and Sustainable Development. UN

Partnership, The Hague [online] (2015). http://

Documents [online] (1992). http://www.un-

www.womenforwater.org/docs/WomanFolderA4_

documents.net/h2o-dub.htm.

proef27mei.pdf.

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Mutagamba, M. (2016). Water Gender Policy in Practice in Uganda. Solutions 7(6): 38-39. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-gender-policy-in-practice-in-uganda/

Perspectives Water Gender Policy in Practice in Uganda by Maria Mutagamba

s a country, Uganda has strived over the years to ensure that it has a gender-sensitive approach towards development. In 1997, the Ugandan government developed its first Uganda Gender Policy (UGP). Renewed in 2007, the UGP aims to establish a clear framework for identification, implementation, and coordination of interventions aimed at achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.1 The policy

requires ministries to translate the UGP into sector-specific strategies and activities, build capacity, monitor and evaluate, and commit resources for implementing these activities. So, in 1999, when the government formulated a National Water Policy to promote a sustainable approach to manage water, the UGP was applied. The water policy specifies that both women and men should have equal opportunity in community management, including water and sanitation committees.2 One of the crucial steps in this process was collecting data on how water scarcity affects men and women differently—with the burden

of water collection usually falling on the latter. Over a decade later, the results of the national study on water have been utilized impressively, with ongoing work to integrate women into local decision-making processes on resource management. Access to safe water in rural areas has been growing steadily, from 61.3 percent in 2004/5 to 65 percent in 20014/15. Yet, problems remain. There continues to be limited gender disaggregated data in the sector, which affects gender responsive planning and budgeting. In 2008, only 16 percent of districts had additional

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

Women participating in a community meeting about water and health challenges in Kiyindi, Uganda. 38 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Perspectives

Chris Stanley

A women’s meeting in Lyantonde District, Uganda.

gender disaggregated data, besides the expected reporting on the gender indicator.3 Monitoring and reporting formats still exclude a provision for capturing in depth qualitative data. At the same time, there are not enough women’s voices being heard in key decision-making forums. Women fill only 16 percent of the top management positions at the Ministry of Water and Environment.4 Additional work must be done by the Ministry of Public Service and by local governments to ensure that recruitment processes are more gender sensitive. At the local level, while women now hold more positions on water committees, they often struggle to attend meetings due to other commitments. When women are able to vote

on decisions, lack of land ownership means they have less influence compared to their male colleagues. The answer to these issues is to broaden the focus on women’s participation beyond water in order to address the deeper causes of poverty. That means applying gendered lenses to health, energy, and food, and supporting women in small-scale enterprise projects that generate economic growth, and cannot be taken over by the formal sector to the detriment of women. For example, women’s capacity should be developed in fields, such as alternative energy technology, that could create income-generating opportunities for women while also protecting local environments.

Expanding a gendered perspective to other sectors will only make sense if the government redoubles its efforts to collect data so as to monitor the impacts of these policies. Improved data can demonstrate that women’s lives really are improving, or else point us in the direction of what further work is needed. References 1. Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. Gender Policy. Government of Uganda (2007). 2. Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment. National Water Policy. Government of Uganda (1997). 3. Ministry of Wildlife and Environment. Water and Sanitation Sub-Sector Gender Strategy (2010–15). Government of Uganda (2010). 4. Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. Gender and Equity Assessment for the Water and Sanitation Sector Final Report (Phase two). Government of Uganda (2014).

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Chamberlain, J. and E. Nakabembe. (2016). Water: A Missing Link That Can Save Mothers and Newborns. Solutions 7(6): 40-46. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-a-missing-link-that-can-save-mothers-and-newborns/

Perspectives Water: A Missing Link That Can Save Mothers and Newborns by Jean Chamberlain and Eve Nakabembe

rom the rising to the setting of the sun in a Ugandan village, the rural Ugandan mother’s life is impacted by water. She wakes up thinking about fetching water from the nearest borehole, and goes to bed at night hoping she has the jerry cans filled with enough of this precious substance. Walking on average 48 minutes to fetch and return with water,1 a young girl named Prossy walks toward a water borehole. She fills her jerry cans and races back home. She needs to get to school by 7:30a.m.—it is now 6:45, and the sun is just rising. Her bright future rests significantly on her ability to complete her education—to finish at least primary school, and hopefully secondary. Poorly-educated mothers have higher rates of maternal death, and are less likely to plan for their families both in terms of total number of children, and the spacing of their births.2 Both of these factors (high fertility and short spacing between births) are significant risk factors for maternal and newborn death.3 This morning, Prossy is fortunate to have escaped any predators—both man and beast—that lie in wait for young girls who are searching for the life-sustaining commodity. Her older sister Lydia was not so fortunate last year, and now she has a baby in her arms. The accused of the crime takes no responsibility, and Lydia has joined the ranks of the school dropouts. She has no chance of finishing her education, unless her school director breaks the unwritten rule of prohibiting young mothers from rejoining school after giving birth. There are no social supports or special programs to reintegrate these young mothers back into educational fora. Instead, they are often denied entrance into any school.

Mark Kibirige

Even pregnant mothers still have to fetch water daily, including this expecting woman in Lugazi, Uganda. Many walk several kilometres each way, and carry as much as 20 litres of water.

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Perspectives

Jean Chamberlain

Without running water, women are forced to fetch water from the nearest source outside of a hospital in Lugazi, Uganda.

Even if readmitted, there are certainly no facilities within the schools for breast feeding or supporting the care of a newborn.4 Lydia is quickly married off to an older man who wants a second wife. She will be pregnant again next year, as the husband will most certainly want another child of his own with her. And so, the circle of poverty has begun at a young age for the adolescent mother. Her risk of dying from a pregnancy-related complication will continue to rise with each pregnancy, as she has little access to family planning or the negotiating skills to limit the number of children she bears for the husband who “rescued” her from being a single mother. Although Prossy and Lydia’s individual stories are fictitious, they are repeated several thousand times

in rural Uganda. It all boils down to water, its availability, and its role in the lives of millions of women and girls in East Africa.

The Challenge Each year, 289,000 women die during pregnancy and child birth. Many more suffer from severe birth injuries, such as obstetric fistula, with the highest numbers in developing countries, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.5 Children under five whose mothers die during the process of pregnancy and childbirth are more likely to lose their lives before their fifth birthday.6 The reasons behind this tragedy have been well studied and documented by many bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO). The highlighted three delays that lead to maternal (and newborn) deaths

are: in seeking health care; en route to hospital; and in receiving lifesaving care once at the health facilities.7 The actual medical causes of death are hemorrhage (excessive bleeding), sepsis (infection), obstructed labor, complications of abortion, and hypertensive (high blood pressure) disorders.8 Multidisciplinary approaches have been highlighted as a key strategy to reducing these avoidable deaths.9

The Cycle of Life and Reproduction Water touches every component of human life. That is no surprise, as 78 percent of a newborn’s weight is composed of water.10 In adults, water is still the most significant component (60 percent) of the human body. Water plays a role in each part of the cycle of

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Perspectives life. The presence, or absence, of water at each stage of life can have impacts that last a lifetime—from before the embryo is conceived, to the earliest days of an infant drinking water by themself or their mother sipping her afternoon tea, the theme and footprint of water runs throughout. Before the Cycle of Life Begins: Pre-pregnancy The factors and issues around the provision of water for girls and women can be thought of as the “preconceptual components” in the intersection between water and safe motherhood. Before a female is even pregnant, water plays a role in potentially increasing her risks of childbearing. The risk of adolescent pregnancy due to rape (or ‘defilement,’ as it is called in East Africa) while girls are fetching water, the inadequate physical development of young women due to malnutrition (caused by unsafe water, and subsequent chronic diarrhea and malabsorption), and the lack of access to safe and readily available sources of water contributes to deaths of young mothers who are pregnant far too young. This impact of water is realized early in the cycle of motherhood. Yet, water continues to spill over into other factors contributing to the health and safety of mothers and newborns. Early Days of the Cycle The availability of safe and clean water, though rarely discussed, is actually pivotal in appreciating the complex factors surrounding not only the causes of unsafe motherhood, but the solutions to this ongoing human tragedy. Take the example of maternal deaths due to complications of abortion. In the developing world, young girls like Lydia can be exposed to the risks of unwanted pregnancy, which can follow rape (for example, while collecting water) or coercion in return

Jean Chamberlain

In partnership with the Mother Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (Save the Mothers), H2O 4 All provided Kawolo Hospital in Buikwe District, Uganda, with rainwater tanks that meet all the needs of their mothers and babies.

for small favors. These young girls will resort to crude means to try and terminate the unwanted pregnancy, often using local herbs or the help of non-skilled and low-level health workers. Often, these young women will then present in the health facilities in critical condition, with either excessive bleeding or overwhelming infection. How can one imagine a hospital managing either of those complications in the absence of clean, safe water? Yet this is the reality in many remote facilities that are dependent upon rainwater harvesting, and so are inevitably without water during the dry season. Highest Risk: Delivery The cycle continues for the pregnant mother: after nine long months of nourishing her soon-to-be child, water continues to be of paramount importance to the mother and her

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infant. The safety and availability of clean and safe water during the actual delivery are essential for mothers and their newborns. International organizations such as WHO stipulate basic requirements for the care of critical complications of pregnancy. These are essential functions or services (e.g., provision of emergency caesarean section, medications like oxytocin to stop bleeding, etc.) that should be available for all pregnant mothers—yet these requirements do not include safe and clean water. It is assumed that water will be available, but in many places, it is not. A mother who receives antibiotics (one of the basic requirements stipulated by the WHO) for a postpartum infection, but has no access to safe water, will undoubtedly become ill again, or simply contract another kind of infection.11 Antibiotic resistance increases with use of antibiotics, even in resource-poor settings, and the

Perspectives

Jean Chamberlain

At Kawolo Hospital in Buikwe District, Uganda, midwifery staff are delighted with clean and safe water for their mothers, babies, and themselves. The hospital kitchen now collects potable water from safe water stores at the maternity unit.

situation becomes even more complicated than previously imagined.12 Women who deliver in unsanitary conditions lacking clean water are exposed to significant risk. Labor and delivery is a very vulnerable time, with

body fluids being exchanged between mother and baby, as well as the risk of contamination of the health worker by the mother, and also to the mother if the worker’s hands and instruments have not been cleaned with safe water.

During the process of labor and child birth, water is essential. Many times, the pregnant mother can only rely on the system which is already in place. During labor, there is little she can do if clean water is not readily available. This is the unacceptable reality for some maternity centers and hospitals in low- and middleincome countries. It is not simply inconvenient that water is not readily available, but rather, it compounds the high risk of dying from the top two major causes of maternal deaths: haemorrhage, and infection. Serious infections can develop due to bacteria that the mother acquires during delivery as a result of unclean hands or instruments. These include significant and deadly agents such as tetanus, which can kill both the mother and baby if they have no immunity to the disease. Approximately 15 percent of all maternal deaths occur as a result of infection. But, in addition to death, many mothers have long-term complications including chronic pelvic pain (due to pelvic infection), and infertility as a result of infections caused by poor or inadequate hygiene.13 Addressing this very obvious gap of water and sanitation in hospitals has been a key strategy of Save the Mothers’ Mother Baby Friendly Hospital program—a 10-step initiative to improve quality of care for mothers and newborns.14 But, quality of care goes far beyond the skills of medical personnel, nurses, and doctors—these skilled people can never give quality care without clean water. This is water for both their clients and for themselves (e.g., to clean off their own skin from potential infectious fluids, such as splashed blood), or to sip a cool glass of water after eight hours of steady work in an environment where one cannot leave mothers and newborn babies unattended in order to

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Perspectives

Jean Chamberlain

After a safe delivery at Kawolo Hospital in Buikwe District, Uganda, a newborn rests contentedly on its mother’s bed.

search for water to drink. The lack of water in these facilities robs patients, and, indeed, their health workers, of dignity and safety. The End of the Cycle: Post-delivery Like mother, like child: newborn health shares a similar outcome when it comes to the impact of the glaring gap caused by the lack of clean water, and its consequences to the health of mothers. Once delivered, the baby, whose mother has no access to clean and safe water, is immediately exposed to bacteria and parasites to which it

has little or no immunity. The mother who delivers her newborn, relieves herself at the hospital’s pit latrine, and then returns to breastfeed her baby on the ward without washing her hands (as no water is available), may soon discover that her newborn has developed sepsis, a generalized blood infection. Her baby will only survive if it is one of the fortunate ones- unlike the 680,000 other newborns that die in the first week of life.15 Worldwide, 2.9 million babies die within the first week of life. Infection is the leading cause of death among this most vulnerable

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population, and unwashed maternal hands are a major contributor to these deadly infections.16 The priority to ensure that health facilities have access to safe water cannot be understated. As we encourage mothers to deliver in settings where they can be assured of lifesaving interventions (e.g., antibiotics and medications to prevent haemorrhage, etc.), provision for safe water and sanitation must be part of the package. Otherwise, mothers and newborns will die from the microscopic consequences (i.e., bacteria) of unsafe motherhood.

Perspectives Solutions for Safe Water in Maternal and Newborn Health Solutions to ensure that young girls and women have access to water during their childhood and early pregnancy are beyond the scope of this article. But, for a moment, we will focus on the critical few hours that pertain to reproductive health: the delivery of a baby. The provision of safe, clean, and accessible water for mothers and their newborns is essential if maternal/neonatal health is to improve among some of the world’s most vulnerable women and babies. Depending on the amount required, the location of the health facility, and other environmental factors, the investment can be significant. However, creative and sustainable technologies can reduce costs and minimize long term expenditures. The introduction of solar-powered pumps to ensure a steady supply of water to a large local hospital in Uganda, through the Canadian-based non-governmental organization H2O 4 All, has ensured that water is available for the care of mothers and their babies.17 With the addition of a water purification system, there is also safe drinking water for both staff and patients. The change in morale and motivation among health workers as a result of this intervention is palpable. It also serves as an example of an effective partnership, where experts in water technology (H2O 4 All) have worked in tandem with technical experts in maternal health (Save the Mothers) as partners through the Mother Baby Friendly Hospital program to ensure that mothers and their babies have a safe and dignified delivery. Silo initiatives that do not address the complete health package required for safe motherhood will have a limited impact on reducing maternal/newborn deaths.

Mark Kibirige

A young girl fetches water in Lugazi, Uganda. Fetching water takes a large toll on young girls’ energy and health, and exposes them to both human and animal predators.

In addition, creative ideas to improve water and sanitation are being piloted and introduced to some of the world’s most vulnerable women through organizations like Wish for WASH, a social impact organization seeking to bring innovation to sanitation through culturally-specific

research, design, and education. Wish for WASH has introduced the SafiChoo toilet, which, through lean manufacturing, customer discovery, and empathic design, offers a “toolbox of options,” allowing the user to choose how to go to the bathroom to best meet their needs.18

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Perspectives The deaths of 680,000 newborns in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America due to infection could be minimized by two simple interventions, both of which are known, yet remain challenging to implement: improved maternal vaccinations (especially tetanus) and improved hygiene. Randomized, controlled trials in Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh have previously demonstrated that clean delivery with chlorhexidine cord-cleansing at and after delivery reduces neonatal death.19-21 The research and innovations are in place to ensure that mothers and their newborns everywhere can drink, wash, and clean in safe and accessible water. It is not a privilege, but a basic human right. Health workers will also suffer less illness and risk when the tap is turned on. The challenge now remains to introduce the resources and the determination to ensure that every mother and her baby have access to this simple, lifesaving intervention: safe and clean water.

Jean Chamberlain

A hospital worker cleans an operating theater at Mityana Hospital, Uganda. Few people in the developed world would consider it acceptable to have surgery in this room without safe water to clean it, yet countless mothers deliver in such circumstances every year.

References 1. Pickering, AJ & Davis, J. Freshwater Availability

7. Thaddeus, S & Maine, D. Too Far to Walk: Maternal

15. Seale, AC et al. Estimates of possible severe bacterial

and Water Fetching Distance Affect Child Health in

Mortality in Context. Social Science and Medicine

infection in neonates in sub-Saharan Africa, south

Sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental Science Technology

38:1091–1110 (1994).

Asia, and Latin America for 2012: a systematic

46(4): 2391–2397 (2012). 2. Kaggwa, EB, Diop, N & Storey, JD. The role of individual and community normative factors: A multilevel analysis of contraceptive use among

8. Khan, K, Wojdyla, D, Say, L, Gulmezoglu, M & Van Look, P. WHO Analysis of causes of maternal death: a systematic review. The Lancet 367: 1066–1074 (2006). 9. Chamberlain, J & Watt, S. Education for safe

women in union in Mali. International Family

motherhood: a Save the Mothers advocacy initiative.

Planning Perspectives 34: 79–88 (2008).

Leadership in Health Services 21: 278–289 (2008).

3. Safe Motherhood Action Agenda: Priorities for the

10. The Water in You. USGS Water Science School

Next Decade. Report on Safe Motherhood Technical

[online] (2016). http://water.usgs.gov/edu/

Consultation October 18–23, 1997 (Family Care

propertyyou.html.

International, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1997). 4. Hindin, MJ & Fatusi, AO. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Developing Countries: An

11. WHO. Monitoring emergency obstetric care: a handbook (World Health Organization, Geneva, 2009). 12. Aiken, AM et al. Risk and causes of paediatric

Overview of Trends and Interventions. International

hospital-acquired bacteraemia in Kilifi District

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 35:

Hospital, Kenya: a prospective cohort study. The

58–62 (2009). 5. Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013. Estimates

Lancet 378: 2021–27 (2011). 13. WHO. Education material for teachers of midwifery.

by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank and the

Midwifery education modules. Second Edition

United Nations Population Division [online] (2014).

(World Health Organization, Geneva, 2008).

http://www.unfpa.org/publications/trends-maternal-

14. Chamberlain, J & Nakabembe, E. Moving Goals

mortality-1990-2013#sthash.luiCHVbZ.dpuf.

review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases 14: 731–41 (2014). 16. Bhutta, ZA et al. What works? Interventions for maternal and child undernutrition and survival. The Lancet Group Series 371, 2–8: 417–440 (2008). 17. H2O 4 All [online] (2016). http://h2o4all.org/. 18. Wish for Wash [online] (2016). http://www. wishforwash.com/#product. 19. Mullany, LC et al. Topical applications of chlorhexidine to the umbilical cord for prevention of omphalitis and neonatal mortality in southern Nepal: a community-based, cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet 367: 910–18, (2006). 20. Arifeen, SE et al. The effect of cord cleansing with chlorhexidine on neonatal mortality in rural Bangladesh: a community-based, clusterrandomised trial. Lancet 379: 1022–28 (2012). 21. Soofi, S et al. Topical application of chlorhexidine to neonatal umbilical cords for

and Policy into Effective Action for Mothers and

prevention of omphalitis and neonatal mortality

Newborns Around the World: the Mother Baby

in a rural district of Pakistan: a community-

Organization [online] (2015). http://www.who.int/

Friendly Hospital Initiative. Journal of Obstetrics and

based, cluster-randomised trial. The Lancet 379:

mediacentre/factsheets/fs348/en/.

Gynaecology Canada 14 (2015).

1029–36, (2012).

6. Maternal Mortality Fact Sheet. World Health

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Rose, R.T. (2016). Post-Ebola Recovery: The Future We Want. Solutions 7(6): 47-49. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/post-ebola-recovery-the-future-we-want/

Perspectives Post-Ebola Recovery: The Future We Want by Robertetta Tita Rose

UNICEF Liberia

A participant in a focus group holds a flier developed to support community outreach activities aimed at stopping the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

he histories of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia share some unfortunate similarities: civil unrest and political crises leaving over 500,000 people dead, the destruction of functioning state institutions, and one of the worst Ebola outbreaks in 2014. Although armed conflicts are officially over, and all three countries have had successful, democratically elected governments, the Ebola outbreak pinpointed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) as crucial for public health in the region and a key priority in the Ebola recovery process.1 Investing in the provision of WaSH services not only prevents the spread of Ebola but further prevents other infectious diseases that greatly contribute to global morbidity and mortality: 88 percent of diarrheal diseases are wholly attributable to poor WaSH services and practices.2 The simple practice of hand

washing with soap can reduce diarrhea morbidity by nearly 40 percent and has been found to be the most costeffective health intervention available.3 Hygiene knowledge and behavior is crucial to this process. Investing in WaSH is a matter of gender equality, with access to safe, hygienic, and private sanitation facilities a matter of basic dignity. Women and girls perform most of the unpaid labor associated with water and sanitation, including procuring and managing water, cleaning and disposing of children’s feces, and ensuring water safety, leaving them less time for education, economic activities, and leisure. For millions of women across the world, inadequate access to basic household WaSH facilities is a source of shame and physical discomfort. Millions of women are only able to defecate late at night, often at the

edges of their communities, where they are vulnerable to physical attack and sexual abuse. Over the years, Liberian women have been admired for exemplifying bravery and being resilient; especially in the midst of situations that were considered most deadly, like the Ebola outbreak. The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa not only took a socioeconomic toll on Liberia but also exposed the weak health care systems that women and girls have been challenged with for over a decade. With only 50 physicians in the country, just one for every 70,000 Liberians,4 it became evident that Liberia had not prioritized issues relating to the improvement of basic social services like health care, education, water, sanitation, and hygiene.5 Liberian women have made great gains over the years. In 2003, Liberian women challenged one of Africa’s most despotic presidents, Charles Ghankay Taylor, and ensured that heads of rebel groups signed the Peace Agreement, which was instrumental in leading to the peace that Liberia enjoys today. Following, from 2006 to 2008, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president, fostered a generation of educated women (lawyers, doctors, engineers, IT professionals, and entrepreneurs) who are now more prepared to take leadership roles in Liberia. In 2014, the women were again tested, but this time not with weapons, rape, or sex-slavery, but instead by an invisible enemy in the form of a virus. This invisible enemy came like a flash of lightning and took away the essence of Liberian tradition and identity: handshakes, communal gathering, and funeral rites. Again, in order to safeguard their family’s lives and the country in general, the women of Liberia formed networks in hard-hit communities to help contain the spread of Ebola.

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Perspectives Out of the great tragedy has emerged an unintended, yet welcome, outcome—local women’s groups have been strengthened, and there is a greater respect for women’s opinions and actions. Unlike other crises, when the women of Liberia had to flee from bullets, rockets, or missiles, this time, it was a health care crisis where the enemy could only be defeated when one practiced careful hygiene, such as washing hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer and avoiding contact with blood and bodily fluids (such as urine, feces, saliva, sweat, urine, vomit, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluids). Community task forces in and around the capital city of Monrovia and other, broader social networks engaged in prevention efforts through training and awareness, hygiene, surveillance, and the creation of local infrastructures. Communities sought guidance from the Ministry of Health staff and other international partners for triaging a sick person when he or she had been turned away from hospitals, for building and supporting holding units in communities, and for reporting deaths when their calls to hotlines went unanswered. Community engagements became significant and replicated in hotspots where the virus was spiraling out of control. “Community task forces are creating house-to-house awareness that has led to the prevention of Ebola in our community, along with community leaders, MSF [Doctors without Borders], and community health teams,” said one religious leader in Montserrado, New Kru Town. As a result of this these efforts, communities’ solidarity became strengthened and people became their neighbors’ keeper. An imam in Montserrado, Banjor, described the community’s response, saying, “People

Abbie Trayler-Smith / Oxfam

Women in Niger learn how to teach hand washing at Banneberi Treatment Centre in Ouallum Province.

in this community would take sick patients to Ebola treatment units because we want them to live and we don’t want them to infect other community members…and it does not matter who the person is, once you are a member of this community, we are willing to carry you. People are now having trust, because since September people have survived and came back.” Women’s groups in Liberia could be much stronger with targeted programs and interventions as part of the Ebola Recovery Plan for the country, including outside support. Despite the many aid commitments during the peak of the Ebola crisis, many of these pledges have still not been translated to concrete actions on the ground. As one of the hardest-hit countries in West Africa, it is the responsibility of the Liberian government to continue making the case for Liberia to those donors still within the country as a follow-up to pledges made during the outbreak.

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The world has been eager to stop the spread of Ebola in West Africa. Now that the virus has been contained, it is not the time to become complacent, turning a blind eye to the needs of the most vulnerable populations—women and girls who are still trying to cope as survivors, orphans, heads of households, and widows. The Government of Liberia and its partners can best promote the recovery of women and girls as part of the postoutbreak recovery plan by: • Identifying opportunities for engagement with local communities to strengthen and build upon the leadership role that women demonstrated in addressing the Ebola crisis; • Fostering recovery and livelihood opportunities for affected communities and families, particularly female-headed households, in all 15 counties of Liberia; and,

Perspectives

UNMEER

Along with UNICEF staff, Cyvette Gibson (left), the acting mayor of Paynesville, Liberia, visited families in the Omega A community as part of Operation Stop Ebola.

• Strengthening institutional and technical capacity for postEbola recovery efforts among humanitarian partners and local women’s groups to ensure that they are included as key stakeholders in the recovery process. One of the most positive behavior changes the current Ebola outbreak has triggered is the massive increase in hand washing throughout Liberia by bringing preventative health issues to the forefront in local communities. This has translated into a significant increase in citizens’ understanding of water-borne diseases and the adoption of good hygiene practices.

Liberian women are resilient, but given the issue of limited financial and institutional support, the government, through the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, and other women’s organizations need to collaborate and develop a robust plan that could support women at both national and local levels.

3. Liberia health workers protest appalling working conditions. Front Page Africa [online] (2014). http:// frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/healthsci/1319-liberia-health-workers-protest-appallingworking-conditions. 4. From whom to whom? Official Development Assistance for Health, Second Edition 2000–2010. World Health Organization [online] (2012). http:// www.who.int/nationalpolicies/resources/whom_ to_whom2ndedition.pdf. 5. Global costs and benefits of drinking-water supply and sanitation interventions to reach the MDG target and universal coverage. World Health

References

Organization [online] (2012). http://www.who.

1. Kucharski, AJ & Piot, P. Containing Ebola virus infection in West Africa. European Surveillance 19(36): 20899 (2014).

int/water_sanitation_health/publications/2012/ globalcosts.pdf. 6. Community perspectives about Ebola in Bong.

2. Barriers to rapid containment of the Ebola outbreak.

Monrovia, Monstserrado, Liberia. USAID [online]

World Health Organization [online] (2014).

(2015). https://f.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/overview-

dir/2225/files/2015/02/HC3-Liberia-Qualitative-

august-2014/en/.

Report.pdf.

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Moreland, L. (2016). Girls and WaSH: How WaSH in Schools Can Help to Address Gender Inequities. Solutions 7(6): 50-54. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/girls-and-wash-how-wash-in-schools-can-help-to-address-gender-inequities/

Perspectives Girls and WaSH: How WaSH in Schools Can Help to Address Gender Inequities by Leslie Moreland

WaterAid /James Kiyimba

Since Build Africa began working with The Kalampete Primary School in Kibuku District, Uganda, the improved access to sanitation facilities, hygiene education, and the ability to harvest water during rainy seasons has greatly increased attendance and performance.

n 2015, 663 million people lacked improved drinking water sources and 2.4 billion lacked access to appropriate sanitation facilities.1 A recent UNICEF study showed that global access to water in schools is at 71 percent and sanitation access at 69 percent. For least-developed countries, this drops to appallingly lower coverage rates of 52 percent and 51 percent, respectively.2 The daily and long-term consequences of the burdens experienced by girls across the globe caused by a lack of safe water and underdeveloped sanitation and hygiene facilities are considerable. This situation is

particularly pronounced for young girls and female adolescents who often miss school because of a lack of access to safe and improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) facilities. While gender disaggregated data for availability of WaSH facilities in schools is limited, reports point to average sanitation coverage being five percent lower for girls than for boys, a critical factor in school attendance.1 Indeed, there is mounting evidence that access to safe water and improved sanitation and hygiene at schools reduces student absenteeism and improves achievement.3 Access to education is a

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catalyst for greater change, leading to decreased poverty rates, improved economic well-being, and better health. Women are often the primary caregivers in the household, and often ‘women’ are no more than young girls starting their journey into adolescence. Too often it is the girl-child who is kept at home to assist with the household chores, including collecting water for her family, while her brother or male family members attend school. Even for girls who continue to attend school, when they have their menses, they often stay at home for its duration due to a lack of adequate

Perspectives sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools. Because of this, girls miss out on up to one week of school per month.4 Knowledge and transmission of reproductive health information and the importance of supporting a safe space and environment for girls to adequately respond to their changing needs are often limited or unavailable. This can be exacerbated by weak policies, or more often, poor implementation of well-intentioned policies as a result of inadequate governance, monitoring systems, and limited budgets to equip schools with equitable and inclusive WaSH facilities. When girls miss school, their education suffers, which in turn increases their risk of poverty, poor health, and general well-being. An educated girl is more likely to delay having sex, marries later, has fewer children, adds more to a country’s GDP, and consequently helps raise herself, her family, and her community out of poverty.5 The newly launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the first time include a target to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, with specific attention on the needs of women and girls. With this newly found international attention, the time has arrived to address WaSH challenges in schools. Evidence shows that investing in safe and improved WaSH facilities improves girls’ health and enhances knowledge, which in turn empowers girls to reach their full potential and become agents of change within their communities. The following solutions suggest concrete ways in which governments, donors, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), civil society organizations, and community members and leaders can come together to ensure that by 2030, girls around the globe have access to adequate and equitable water, sanitation, and hygiene.

WaSH in Schools: Proposed Solutions

Provision of WaSH Increases Girls’ Confidence and Safety in Rural Ethiopia

1. Access to safe water in schools. Extreme poverty often prevents families from sending all of their children to school, and when a choice needs to be made to send only a few, it is the boys who attend most often. This ensures that girls are able to help with household chores and bear the burden of collecting water for household-related needs.6 When girls do attend school, these same cultural norms mean that girls are the ones to miss class to fetch water for school-related needs, often miles away from the school, and from sources located in unsafe areas. When water is available at schools, this burden is reduced and the school becomes a safe place for parents to send all of their children. Specifically, these issues of inequality can be addressed by the following:

Emyet Abdu is 12 years old, a fourthgrade student at Kokogn Primary School. Emyet says that her school failed to provide adequate facilities, such as improved toilets and running water, which caused significant difficulty for her and her female friends. “For us, the problems were many. We were not confident to use the bushes around us because of fear of violence including rape, sexual harassment, physical and psychological intimidation, teasing, and threats,” she says. However, with the recently provided gender-friendly sanitation block, hand-washing facilities, and water, Emyet is no longer concerned about these problems. She and her friends are able to confidently attend classes and to each reach their full potential. Courtesy of WaterAid Canada

• Installing a safe, gender-friendly water supply facility inside the school compound, such as a borehole with a hand pump, rain water catchment system, or a piped water system (appropriate for urban or peri-urban schools) in line with national guidelines; • Setting aside government funds for operation and maintenance of facilities, including establishing water quality monitoring as part of the operation and maintenance of facilities; • Training staff on upkeep of facilities and linking schools to local service providers for repairs; and, • Ensuring water is placed in key areas for use by girls and boys, including in classrooms, at hand washing stations, and in latrine or toilet blocks.

2. Access to improved sanitation and hygiene in schools. A lack of improved sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools impacts girls disproportionately to boys and is a significant factor in keeping girls from attending school. Unsafe sanitation facilities, including shared toilets and a lack of doors, impede girls from using the toilets (potentially leading to increased health issues) and, when used, feeling dignified and safe. In addition, latrines and toilets that lack facilities to manage menstrual hygienerelated needs prevent girls from attending school when they have their menses. This reduces their quantity and quality of learning and in turn affects their long-term health and economic development. A lack of hand-washing facilities also negatively impacts girls’

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Perspectives (and boys’) health, contributing to increased morbidity and mortality. It is possible for these challenges to be tackled by the following actions: • Installing improved sanitation (latrine or toilet) facilities within the school compound, including gender-friendly stalls with water and space to wash, hooks for hanging clothing, and safe waste disposal options; • Provision of sanitary pads, available in case of an emergency through the head female teachers; and, • Adequate hand-washing facilities located near the latrine or toilet blocks with sufficient water and soap. 3. Enhance access to knowledge, information, and decision making. Due to cultural norms or social taboos, girls and women often lack access to information about reproductive health and the changes they go through during puberty. These subjects are difficult to discuss in social settings, particularly in schools where there is male leadership. Thus, girls’ WaSH needs are frequently neglected within the broader education context and information is not easily accessible or shared within institutions or at the household level, perpetuating generational knowledge gaps.7 In addition, girls (and women) are regularly excluded from decision-making processes that directly impact their personal care and daily lives. Girls seldom have control of WaSH-related decisions because they lack the financial resources to spend on items such as sanitary materials. The following solutions offer a starting point to address these challenges: • Advocate for the inclusion of menstrual hygiene management and reproductive health

information in school curriculum (for both boys and girls); • Encourage active participation of girls and women in decision making and in assuming leadership roles; • Partner with community members, local leaders, school health clubs, and students (males and females) to address cultural taboos and social norms around gender equality and specific WaSH-related needs; and, • Ensure that girls and women are able to manage menstruation hygienically and with privacy and dignity (linked to Solution 2). 4. Improve the enabling environment. A significant factor for improving the health status and economic opportunity for girls is enhanced access to education. This enabling initiative is hindered by indifferent governance systems whose policies create an absence of national guidelines for WaSH in schools and are out of alignment with national gender policies. Developing countries face a shortage of funds to meet the needs of and sustain gains made for WaSH in schools for every child and have a limited capacity or ability for local government line ministries to support WaSH in schools. Weak coordination between key stakeholders, combined with the complexity of school-based interventions (requiring input from multiple ministries, local councils/government, service providers, and school management committees and students) also hinders the impact of WaSH initiatives to improve the prospects for girls to enhance their education and facilitate improvement in their health options.8 The following solutions are ways to improve the environment to enable girls to have greater access to education:

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Female Leadership Provides Opportunity for More Gender Responsive Education Female leadership is a key factor in encouraging girls’ participation in school and in providing a safe space to discuss their female-specific needs. Asiimwe Deborah, a teacher and sanitation coordinator at Mutundwe Church of Uganda Primary School, provides such an example. She developed a work plan to educate the older girls about menstrual hygiene management, a neglected issue for her female students. She is even training the girls to make their own sanitary pads, as well as working with local NGOs and the school to elicit additional support to provide these much needed supplies and educational materials. Courtesy of WaterAid Canada

• Utilize/create a participatory WaSH-related steering committee or working group under a key Ministry to inform evidence-based policies and decision making processes for the development of guidelines for WaSH in schools and the national implementation of these guidelines; • Support and use global initiatives, such as the global partnership Sanitation and Water for All,9 to achieve universal access to clean water and adequate sanitation— and global commitments such as the SDGs—to garner momentum and political and financial support for WaSH in schools at a national level; and, • Provide coordinated, quality training for line ministry officials and their counterparts in the communities and schools, by government and/or NGOs, to

Perspectives

Improved hygiene

Economic growth

Increased performance

Less disease

Increased attendance

Raising Even More Clean Hands: Advancing Health, Learning and Equity through WaSH in Schools. UNICEF (2012): pp. 6.

Figure 1. WaSH in schools: a cycle of opportunity.

improve understanding and knowledge about the importance of WaSH in schools and the capacity to be able to adequately plan, implement, monitor, and sustain improved WaSH facilities.

Final Thoughts Education is the cornerstone of a healthy and productive society. Yet around the globe, girls miss out on attending school more so than their male counterparts. According to UNESCO’s most recent Global Education Monitoring Report,10 there are still many countries with less than 90 girls enrolled for every 100 boys in primary and secondary schools, with an even greater gap between rich and

poor female students. Many factors can be attributed to low attendance rates for girls, and, as has been demonstrated in this article, a lack of access to safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene are three of them. Without access to these basic WaSH services, girls, and boys, miss out on critical development opportunities. Girls are particularly affected as they have additional needs to be met, especially as they hit puberty and need effective and dignified ways to manage menstruation. Provision of these facilities is one step toward ensuring more equitable access to education and, in turn, economic opportunity. It is critical that the provision of these facilities be supported by increased

knowledge and capacity to effectively plan, manage, and monitor WaSHrelated educational gains. In addition, a supportive enabling environment to sustain these gains must be in place. By developing and operationalizing national-level guidelines, mobilizing and sustaining funds to support the provision of services to meet these guidelines, enhancing knowledge and buy-in of key stakeholders at the local and community levels, and building capacity to manage WaSH facilities in schools, paying particular attention to the specific needs of girls, equitable hygiene facilities can be achieved. In implementing some or all of these solutions, girls are more likely to attend school, increase their confidence, and feel empowered to actively engage in decision making (with simultaneous support by male leaders, teachers, caregivers, and students), stay in school longer, have fewer children, marry at a more mature age and stage of life, and lead healthier and more productive lives. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank WaterAid Canada for providing the material for the personal case studies included in this article. References 1. UNICEF and WHO Joint Monitoring Program. Progress on sanitation and drinking water—2015 update and MDG assessment [online] (2015). http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_English.pdf. 2. UNICEF. Advancing WASH in Schools Monitoring [online] (2015). http://www.unicef.org/wash/ schools/files/Advancing_WASH_in_Schools_ Monitoring.pdf. 3. UNICEF. Raising even more clean hands: Advancing health, learning and equity through WASH in schools [online] (2012). http://www. unicef.org/wash/schools/files/Raising_Even_More_ Clean_Hands_Web_17_October_2012.pdf. 4. House, S, Mahon, T & Cavill, S. Menstrual hygiene matters: A resource for improving menstrual hygiene around the world. WaterAid [online] (2012).

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Perspectives

WaterAid /James Kiyimba

Girls at Nanoko Primary School in Kibuku District, Uganda, display reusable sanitary pads that they learned to make through the school’s health club. The club teaches boys and girls in upper primary classes about body changes during adolescence, personal hygiene, and skills such as making soap and these sanitary pads. http://www.wateraid.org/~/media/Files/Global/ MHM%20files/Compiled_LR.pdf. 5. PLAN International. Because I am a Girl – The State of the World’s Girls 2012: Learning for Life [online] (2012). https://plan-international.org/state-worldsgirls-2012-learning-life. 6. Millennium Development Goals. Goal: promote gender equality and empower women. UNICEF [online] (2016). http://www.unicef.org/mdg/index_ genderequality.htm. 7. Gakidou, E, Cowling, K, Lozano, R & Murray, CJL. Increased educational attainment and its effect on child mortality in 175 countries between 1970 and 2009: A systematic analysis. Lancet 376: 959–74 (2010). 8. UNICEF. Raising even more clean hands: Advancing health, learning and equity through wash in schools [online] (2012). http://www.unicef.org/wash/ schools/files/Raising_Even_More_Clean_Hands_ Web_17_October_2012(1).pdf. 9. Sanitation and Water for All [online] (2016). http://sanitationandwaterforall.org/. 10. UNESCO. Education for all, 2000–2015: Achievements and challenges [online] (2015). http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002322/ 232205e.pdf.

WaterAid / Behailu

Students in class at Sor Elementary and Junior School in Ethiopia. WaterAid Ethiopia and its partner Ethiopia Wetlands and Natural Resources Association have partnered with the school to build gendersegregated toilet rooms with access to clean water. In the interim, the school collaborates with NGOs to make sanitation kits available for girls who are in their menstrual periods.

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Marseille, A. (2016). The Fastest Way to Safe Water for All: Women. Solutions 7(6): 55-57. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/the-fastest-way-to-safe-water-for-all-women/

Perspectives The Fastest Way to Safe Water for All: Women by Arnold Marseille

Asha Abdulrahman

Members of the Mwihoko Women Group in Nakuru County, Kenya gather for a ceremony.

omen and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection, spending up to six hours each day collecting water.1,2 In Africa and Asia, women and children walk an average of 3.7 miles per day just to complete this task.3,4 What’s more, those women and girls across the world living without toilets spend 266 million hours every day finding a place to relieve themselves.5 Globally, one third of all schools lack access to safe water and sanitation, causing countless girls to drop out, and, every ninety seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.6 These are just a few of the many available hard facts illustrating how extremely important it is to give specific and dedicated attention to the link between water and women.

Since its establishment in 2004, Women for Water Partnership (WfWP) has made the case that dramatic success can be achieved by policies recognizing this link. Where this connection is made, results further underline this importance: involving women can make water projects six to seven times more effective. WfWP has lobbied the United Nations to make this linkage part of its vision for global development. As often happens, grassroots examples show how helping women gain access to water can transform lives. The Mwihoko Women Group in Kenya is a perfect example of the enormous difference that empowering women can make. In Ndibai Village in Nakuru County, 22 women, fed up with drinking contaminated water from a local river—for which they had to walk

many miles in unsafe environments to collect—decided to form a group with the main focus of gaining access to safe water at a reasonable distance. Initially, the women took part in a rainwater harvesting project which was designed and managed for them by a local nongovernmental organization. However, after the pilot period for the project, the Mwihiko women felt marginalized, and unable to realize the project’s potential. Soroptimist International of Europe, which has a club in Nakuru and is a member of the WfWP Kenya branch, then stepped in to help the women in realizing their ambitions. The women received training about how access to safe water, adequate sanitation, and proper hygiene can help prevent illness and death from diseases such as diarrhea and dysentery. Women were shown how to use taps, and, for those who had water tanks, it was explained that they needed to cover the tanks and clean them once a year. They learned how to use chlorine tablets to kill bacteria in their water, and how to keep the environment clean around water springs, boreholes, and taps. The women were inquisitive and eager to learn. Guided by WfWP, the Mwihiko women then partnered with other stakeholders such as local administrators, schools, and health officers to install water tanks at local schools and in households. Filters were put into these tanks, and public health officers checked the quality of the water. In this way, the women learned how to deal with local authorities in order to get things done, get their voices heard, and gain more influence. Next to water and sanitation, the Mwihiko women dreamed of having a training center for organizing courses for themselves and for other communities in the region. A plan was made to build such a center. However, much to the surprise of the women, the

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Perspectives

A young woman with an infant on her back carries water in Mali. 56 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Perspectives recruited project manager decided to build the training center on his own private land. When the building was finished, the project manager fenced off the area. The women were not allowed to enter the area, could not use the training center, and were unable to make their long-held dream come true. They also discovered that the several rainwater harvesting tanks they had purchased for the project were half the size of those for which they had paid. The Mwihiko women, despite the disillusion from being conned, turned this crisis into an opportunity,

their community strengthens the message to decision makers at national and international levels about acknowledging the important role that women play in enabling access to safe water and sanitation. While vastly impressive, the Mwihiko women are not unique. WfWP members deliver many such stories every year from around the globe. All together, these stories clearly illustrate that the solution for a successful implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 on Water starts with the equal participation of women.

Open communication and cooperation have been developed with the local authorities to ensure that water provision is managed and maintained properly.

Curt Carnemark / World Bank

learned from their failures, and pulled their strength. The women raised the money to purchase one hectare of land through the Nakuru council, assisted by a solicitor who managed the legal dealings. On this land, the women built toilets and a new training center—this one truly for themselves. Thanks to the empowered Mwihiko women, their community is now fully aware of their rights and responsibilities. They have turned from beneficiaries into partners. Open communication and cooperation have been developed with the local authorities to ensure that water provision is managed and maintained properly. Having learned their way around the bureaucracies of the regional council, the women are now asked to help other communities succeed in similar efforts. The impact that the Mwihiko women made, and continue to make, in

References 1. WHO/UNICEF, Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water, 2015. Update and MDG Assessment. UN [online] (2015). http://www. wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMPUpdate-report-2015_English.pdf. 2. UN Water. Water and Gender Factsheet, World Water Day 2013. UN [online] (2013). http://www. unwater.org/fileadmin/user_upload/unwater_new/ docs/water_and_gender.pdf. 3. UNESCO, World Water Assessment Programme. Water for Women: Every woman counts. Every second counts. UN [online] (2015). http://www.unwater.org/ fileadmin/user_upload/worldwaterday2015/docs/ Water%20For%20Women.pdf. 4. OHCHR, UN-HABITAT & WHO. The Right to Water, Fact Sheet No. 35. UN [online] (2010). http://www. ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet35en.pdf. 5. Domestos, WaterAid & WSSCC. Why we can’t wait. A report on sanitation and hygiene for women and girls. Worldtoilet.org [online] (2015). http:// worldtoilet.org/documents/WecantWait.pdf. 6. WHO/UNICEF, Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water, 2015. Update and MDG Assessment. UN [online] (2015). http://www. wssinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMPUpdate-report-2015_English.pdf.

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Ali, M. and A. Grobicki. (2016). Women’s Roles in Managing Wetlands. Solutions 7(6): 58-63. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/womens-roles-in-managing-wetlands/

Feature

Women’s Roles in Managing Wetlands by Mariam Ali and Ania Grobicki

Jassim Alasadi, Nature Iraq

Ma’dan women navigate the Iraqi marshes to gather reeds, which they use in crafts and to construct their homes.

In Brief Although wetlands supply all of our freshwater, scientific studies show that 64 percent of these vital natural ecosystems have disappeared since 1900. The mission of the Ramsar Convention is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands throughout the world, and its Strategic Plan (2016–2024) recognizes the direct relevance of these ecosystems to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Goal 6 on Water, among others. Since in many regions water is collected and managed largely by women, their empowerment is a requirement for effective wetland and water management. Based on case studies from Ramsar sites in Burkina Faso, Greece, and Iraq, five principles are proposed for enhancing women’s participation in wetland and water management. These principles are 1. Recognizing women’s central role in providing, managing, and safeguarding wetland and water resources; 2. Actively supporting women’s full participation in the governance of these resources at all levels; 3. Mainstreaming gender issues across wetland, water, and cross-sectoral policies and plans; 4. Valuing the economic, cultural, and social benefits of women’s wetland-based livelihoods; and, 5. Ensuring that solutions to enhance gender equality are adapted to local cultural contexts. 58 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

cross the world, women play a central role in providing, managing, and safeguarding wetland and water resources. The purpose of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is to support the conservation and wise use of these extraordinary natural areas. Case studies featuring women from Ramsar Sites in Burkina Faso, Greece, and Iraq can be used to explore best practices. From these case studies, five principals have been developed to help identify solutions to enhance women’s participation in wetland and water management.

Wetlands, the Ramsar Convention, and Gender Equality Wetlands are vital natural ecosystems and include such iconic areas as the Everglades (USA), the Sundarbans (India/Bangladesh), and the Okavango Delta (Botswana). Their official definition under the Ramsar Convention is, “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.”1 Hence, wetlands include all rivers, lakes, swamps, and estuaries, as well as coastal zones and range in size from less than a single hectare to the massive Pantanal (Brazil/Bolivia/Paraguay), which covers an area of 15 million hectares. Although wetlands supply all of our freshwater, scientific studies show that 64 percent of these crucial ecosystems have disappeared since 1900.2 Today, these natural ecosystems provide livelihoods for over one billion people, as well as services vital for life such as food (especially fish and rice production), freshwater, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Wetlands also store over 30 percent of all land-locked carbon, which is twice the amount contained in all of the world’s forests.3

Wetlands are clearly essential for our survival, as well as that of a multitude of plant and animal species. So why have we lost such a large percentage of the world’s wetland areas? Over time, most wetlands

Key Concepts • Wetlands supply all of our freshwater, account for one billion livelihoods, provide much of our food security, and store 30 percent of the world’s land-locked carbon. Yet, scientific studies show that 64 percent of these vital natural ecosystems have disappeared since 1900. • Women play a central role in providing, managing, and safeguarding wetland and water resources across the world. Globally, 2.5 percent of the world’s water is freshwater, of which only 0.3 percent is surface water. Every person requires 20 to 50 liters of water per day for basic drinking, cooking, and cleaning. In many regions, this water is collected and managed largely by women. • The mission of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands throughout the world, and its Strategic Plan (2016–2024) recognizes the direct relevance of these ecosystems to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, including Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Goal 6 on Water. • Some key principles for enhancing women’s participation in wetland and water management include recognizing women’s central role in providing, managing, and safeguarding these vital resources, actively supporting women’s full participation in their governance, and mainstreaming gender issues across wetland, water, and cross-sectoral policies and plans.

have been drained and cultivated for intensive food production and others reclaimed to extend urban areas and infrastructure. The immense benefits and services provided by wetlands have not been fully recognized.

The mission of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands throughout the world and includes raising awareness of their immense economic, social, and environmental value. Since its adoption in 1971, over 2,240 Ramsar sites have been designated as wetlands of international importance, altogether covering over 215 million hectares.4 The Convention is currently recognized by 169 governments who commit to the following: • Working towards the wise use of all their wetlands; • Designating suitable wetlands for the list of Wetlands of International Importance (the “Ramsar List”) and ensuring their effective management; and, • Cooperating internationally on transboundary wetlands, shared wetland systems, and shared species.5 With respect to gender equality, the Convention’s Strategic Plan (2016–2024) recognizes the direct relevance of wetlands to the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Goal 6 on Water.6 One of the Convention’s resolutions on culture also includes a principle to “take into account culturally appropriate treatment of gender, age and social role issues” in the management of wetlands (Ramsar Resolution VIII.19 on the cultural values of wetlands).7 The Convention’s Strategic Plan and many of its resolutions on communities, Indigenous peoples, and culture further support global objectives linked to women and gender equality, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Target 14 on preserving and restoring ecosystems, “taking account of the needs of women, Indigenous and local communities, the poor and vulnerable.”8

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The Link between Women and Wetlands

UN Photo/John Isaac

Women in Burkina Faso during the dry seasons prepare the ground for crops by pounding and terracing it to control erosion and catch the rainwater when it comes. 60 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

Only 2.5 percent of the world’s water is freshwater, of which only 0.3 percent is surface water. Every person requires 20 to 50 liters of water a day for basic drinking, cooking, and cleaning.3 In many regions, this water is collected and managed largely by women.9 The role of women is recognized in the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Based on the Dublin Principles presented at the World Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, IWRM is a process that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land, and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The third principle of IWRM emphasizes that, “women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water.”10 Given their close link with water, women are often highly aware of the importance of wetlands and water to livelihoods. The degradation and loss of wetlands also has gender differentiated impacts, for example, on the availability of water for household and agricultural use. As indicated by this year’s theme for International Women’s Day, “Planet 50–50 by 2030: Step it up for Gender Equality,” momentum is building to accelerate the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 5 on Women and Goal 6 on Water.11 Goal 5 on Gender Equality calls for ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere, and ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership. Goal 6 is focused on water supply and sanitation, IWRM, and protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, such as wetlands.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that these two goals on women and water are listed together. Fully empowering women is a prerequisite for truly sustainable development, and it is likewise a requirement for effective wetland and water management. The following three case studies from Ramsar sites in Burkina Faso, Greece, and Iraq illustrate the great diversity of ways in which women contribute to wetland and water resource management.

Burkina Faso In Burkina Faso’s Central North region, the establishment of women-inclusive Local Water Committees in 2013 has led to significant improvements in local water governance as a direct result of women’s participation. The Burkina Faso national gender policy of 2009 highlights important gender inequalities in the access to, supply, and management of drinking water. Water is mainly provided by women and girls who devote large amounts of time to its collection, often to the detriment of other productive and capacity-building activities, such as education. The leadership of women in the newly established Local Water Committees has helped ensure that women’s voices are heard and that their specific problems and needs in relation to water collection and management are addressed. Their dynamism has also contributed to the creation of a new Local Water Charter, a locally enacted regulation for the management of the Lake Dem Ramsar Site, which ensures equitable and sustainable access to the lake’s water resources for all. The Committees, supported by the Consolidation of Local Environmental Governance project funded by the Austrian Development Agency, have also been instrumental in establishing three new Ramsar Sites as protected water sources: Tougouri Dam Lake, Yalgo Dam Lake, and Nakanbé-Mané

basin. These women-inclusive Committees are a critical link in the governance of local water resources and wetlands, and illustrate the application of the principles of IWRM, particularly that “the role of women in collecting, distributing and managing water must be recognized.”

Northern Greece In the wetland landscapes of northern Greece, women play a central management role. In fact, the majority of patrolling wardens tasked with protecting the Lesser White-fronted Goose in the Kerkini Lake and Evros Delta Ramsar Sites are women. These geese are one of the most threatened bird species in Europe. Key threats to this bird, of which only about 20 breeding pairs survive in Europe, include hunting and accidental shooting.

Patrolling takes place in remote areas in the middle of the night, often in freezing temperatures. As hunting is generally a male occupation, there were concerns about how female patrollers would deal with men who were carrying rifles and how they would collaborate with the mostly male Forest Service guard teams with whom they would be working. The Hellenic Ornithological Society’s experience so far has shown that men are actually less inclined to aggression when stopped by women performing checks and that a diplomatic yet assertive approach by women can be an asset in managing teams of guards consisting mostly of men. Their conclusion has been that a combination of women and men working together can help make patrolling more effective and safer for all of those involved.

Fully empowering women is a prerequisite for truly sustainable development, and it is likewise a requirement for effective wetland and water management. The Lesser White-fronted Goose breeds in Scandinavia and migrates to Greece for the winter. The Hellenic Ornithological Society (BirdLife Greece), a local nongovernmental organization, coordinates an ambitious multinational and multiinstitutional conservation project spanning the bird’s entire range, which is funded by the European Commission with co-financing from the Norwegian Environment Agency. When this project was first put into place, more women than men applied for the patrolling warden posts, resulting in an unexpected majority of women patrollers in what is generally a male-dominated role. In Greece, illegal hunting coincides with the winter hunting season.

Iraq The women of the Ma’dan people in the Mesopotamian Marshes are custodians of wetland-based livelihoods and crafts that date back more than 5,000 years to Sumerian times. These marshes, also referred to as the “Garden of Eden,” or the “Cradle of Civilization,” were once entirely populated by the Ma’dan, who constructed floating islands and reed houses in the marshes, developing wetland villages built in the reeds and linked by a network of channels. The Mesopotamian Marshes, which are designated as three separate Ramsar Sites, are located in southern Iraq and partially in Iran and Kuwait. At one time, they were the largest wetlands in Western Eurasia, but prior to 2003 had

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been drained and reduced to 10 percent of their original size. Over the last 13 years, some dykes have been removed and the marsh areas reflooded, allowing the Marsh Arabs to return to live there. In these parts, the wetlands have recovered to some extent but are still faced with serious conservation issues. The Ma’dan people’s lives and livelihoods are intrinsically linked to the marshes and in particular to the reeds that are used in constructing their homes and crafts. The women harvest reeds from deep within the marshes and transport them by boats propelled with poles. With the reeds, they weave mats of various sizes known as Albariya. The women also often participate in building the distinctive reed houses, considered masterpieces of architectural heritage. In addition, the reed mats are used in making fences, livestock sheds, and floor coverings. Hand-made clay ovens are used to bake bread and cook fish, in the same manner as they have been since Sumerian times. The clay and other component materials such as papyrus are sourced from the wetlands. Many of these sustainable crafts and traditions have a direct historical link to a very ancient Mesopotamian culture and the ever-present marsh environment. It is in large part thanks to the custodial role of women in Southern Mesopotamia that these extraordinary cultural practices remain an enduring part of life there today.

Final Thoughts The very first line of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands recognizes the interdependence of people and the environment. Understanding the links between the cohesion of human societies and the integrity of water environments, including the specific roles of women, is fundamental to achieving the Convention’s mission of contributing to sustainable development throughout the world. Today, over two decades after the adoption by the international

LHG Creative Photography

A Lesser White-fronted Goose bathes its feathers.

community of the 1992 Dublin Principles on Water and Sustainable Development, which emphasized the “pivotal role of women as providers and users of water and guardians of the living environment,” gender is included in many positive policies addressing women’s specific needs and empowering them to participate in the management of wetlands and water.12 Nonetheless, despite significant progress there is still a long way to go before the hundreds of millions of women who are involved in the day-to-day management and use of wetlands and water resources are fully empowered. The above examples from Burkina Faso, Greece, and Iraq illustrate the pivotal roles that women can play as guardians of wetland and water resources. The nature of these roles is heavily dependent on local social, political, economic, and environmental conditions. Therefore, what works to empower women in Burkina Faso will not necessarily work in Greece or Iraq, and vice-versa. However, we can extract some universal principles from these case

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studies that we hope will be helpful to all stakeholders in identifying solutions to enhance women’s participation in wetland and water resource management: • Recognition: women’s central role in the provision, management, and safeguarding of wetland and water resources is recognized by all stakeholders. • Full participation: women’s full participation in wetland and water governance structures is actively supported at all levels, including their participation in leadership roles. • Mainstreaming gender issues: gender issues are systematically and adequately included in wetland, water, and cross-sectoral policies and plans in order to contribute to the implementation by 2030 of Sustainable Development Goal 5 on Gender Equality and Goal 6 on Water. • Valuing economic, social, and cultural benefits: the economic, social, and cultural value of women’s wetland-based livelihoods

Advisor for Africa, Ramsar Convention Secretariat), Bobodo Blaise Sawadogo (Coordinator of Consolidation of Local Environmental Governance project), Aïcha Tapsoba (Environmental Economist, INERA-DPF), Manolia Vougioukalou (Lesser White fronted Goose LIFE Project Manager, Hellenic Ornithological Society), and Jassim Alasadi (Nature Iraq). References 1. An Introduction to the Convention on Wetlands. Ramsar Handbooks, 5th ed. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (2016). http://www.ramsar. org/sites/default/files/documents/library/ handbook1_5ed_introductiontoconvention_e.pdf. 2. Davidson, NC. How much wetland has the world lost? Long-term and recent trends in global wetland area. Marine and Freshwater Research 65: 934–940 (2014). 3. Wetlands: why should I care? Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (2016). http://www.ramsar.org/ sites/default/files/documents/library/factsheet1_ why_should_i_care_0.pdf. 4. The Ramsar Sites Information Service. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (2016). https://rsis. ramsar.org/. 5. Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (1971). http://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/ documents/library/current_convention_text_e.pdf. 6. The 4th Strategic Plan 2016 – 2024. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (2015). http:// www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/ library/4th_strategic_plan_2016_2024_e.pdf. 7. TARGET 14 - Technical Rationale extended. Convention on Biological Diversity [online] (2016).

Jenny Downing

A woman in Indonesia works in wetlands.

https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/rationale/target-14/. 8. Wetlands: water, life, and culture in 8th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Wetlands. Resolution VIII.19

are formally recognized, and investment by governments in wetland conservation and restoration is adequate to maintain the vital services that they provide for future generations, such as freshwater. • Adapting solutions to local contexts: a good understanding of the local cultural context, and the specific roles of women therein, is crucial to identify and successfully implement appropriate solutions to enhance women’s participation in wetland and water management.

Ultimately, the effective governance of all natural resources, including wetlands and water, requires women and men working together. We hope that these case studies provide inspiration to the many women and men involved in wetland conservation and wise use around the world to join together and “Step it up for Gender Equality.”

Guiding principles for taking into account the cultural values of wetlands for the effective management of sites. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands [online] (2002). http://www.ramsar.org/ sites/default/files/documents/pdf/res/key_res_ viii_19_e.pdf. 9. Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health. World Health Organization [online] (2003). http:// www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/ WSH03.02.pdf. 10. IWRM Principles. Global Water Partnership [online] (2012). http://www.gwp.org/en/The-Challenge/

Acknowledgements We would like to warmly thank our many colleagues who contributed case studies on women and wetlands, including Paul Ouédraogo (Senior

What-is-IWRM/IWRM-Principles/. 11. About Step It Up. UN Women [online] (2016). http:// www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/step-it-up/about. 12. The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development. UN Documents [online] (1992). http:// www.un-documents.net/h2o-dub.htm.

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Cave, K. and S. McKay. (2016). Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water. Solutions 7(6): 64-73. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/water-song-indigenous-women-and-water/

Feature

Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water by Kate Cave and Shianne McKay

Ayse Gursoz

Josephine Mandaman, a First Nations Grandmother, Anishinaabekwe from Manitoulin Island, during a water blessing ceremony at the Hudson River before the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York. 64 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

In Brief Water is life and needs to be respected. For the Indigenous people in Canada, there is a reciprocal and unique relationship with water. In particular, Indigenous women share a sacred connection to the spirit of water through their role as child bearers, and have particular responsibilities to protect and nurture water. The forces of colonization and the lack of services to sustain reserves (space), residential schools (relationships), and federally imposed Elected Council systems (governance) have led to a disconnect in the intergenerational transfer of knowledge surrounding water. As a consequence, communities have experienced loss of language, traditional practices, and the roles and responsibilities of Indigenous women related to water. In response, Indigenous women across the country are raising their voices to draw attention to water issues faced in Indigenous communities and the inequities in the involvement of Indigenous women in water governance. They are arguing for the necessity of restoring women’s rightful place in and responsibilities for water governance. Drawing from literature, inspirational examples, and personal communication with Indigenous men and women from across Canada, this article provides a framework that is guided by 10 key principles and seven mechanisms to support Indigenous women in reasserting and reclaiming their influence on water governance.

The Earth is said to be a woman. In this way it is understood that woman preceded man on the Earth. She is called Mother Earth because from Her come all living things. Water is Her life blood. It flows through Her, nourishes Her, and purifies Her.1

o matter where people reside, what we do for a living, our beliefs, or age, all of us must relate to water in order to live.2 Water is fundamental for our individual and community health, well-being, and sustainability as well as for ecological integrity and function. For Indigenous people in Canada (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, nations, or communities) there is a reciprocal and unique relationship with the water; Indigenous women especially are recognized as having a special role and connection with water as they are life-givers.3 Across Canada there has been a movement within Indigenous Nations to “rebuild the connections that have been altered or lost through Western influences, starting with the spiritual and cultural bonds they have had to water.”4 As the traditional ‘water-keepers’ or ‘care takers’ of the water, it is predominately Indigenous women who are leading these efforts. Water is an increasingly contested issue as Indigenous Canadian communities continue to assert Aboriginal Title, Treaty, and Rights regarding lands and waters within their traditional territories, revealing the complexity of future water planning, management, and governance. Most recently, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the Tsilhqot’in peoples have Aboriginal Title to over 1,700 square kilometers of their traditional territory.5 While Aboriginal Title to water was not specifically discussed in this decision, it is predicted that it has laid the foundation for Indigenous communities to assert their rights and make claims to water sources within their traditional territories.6

This article reflects on the relationships Indigenous women have to water, the impact of decolonization on, and inequities in the involvement of Indigenous women in water governance, and the need for restoring women’s rightful place and responsibilities in these processes. There are nuanced interpretations and different experiences associated with these processes, thus it is not the intent to reflect

Key Concepts • Water has significant cultural importance to Indigenous communities in Canada. • Indigenous women in particular share a sacred connection to the spirit of water through their role as child bearers and have particular responsibilities to protect and nurture water. • Through colonialism processes, inequities exist in the involvement of Indigenous women in water governance, necessitating the restoration of women’s rightful place and responsibilities in water governance. • Indigenous women across the country are raising their voices to draw attention not only to water issues faced in Indigenous and wider communities. • As principles and mechanisms are applied to re-empower and support Indigenous women in their role as water stewards and to be part of or lead the water governance dialogue, challenges can be overcome.

the views of all Indigenous people across Canada or to provide a thorough discussion on the numerous issues that contextually surround Indigenous women and water. Rather, the intent is to provide instructive examples that represent these different histories. Among the most prominent, colonization and the lack of services to sustain reserves (space), residential schools (relationships), and federally imposed

Elected Council systems (governance) have led to a disconnect in the transfer of knowledge. As a consequence, Indigenous communities have suffered a loss of language, traditional practices, and the roles and responsibilities of Indigenous women related to water. This is a reflection of selected literature, water-related events and initiatives, and interviews conducted with eight Indigenous men and women from across Canada in order to explore solutions to engaging Indigenous women in water governance. For the purpose of this paper, water governance refers to the processes and institutions related to the development and management of water resources.7 While the interviewees represented a variety of Nations from many locations (north, south, east, and west) and included both men and women, they do not represent all Nations, or present an exhaustive list of views and perspectives held by Indigenous peoples with regard to water in Canada. It has been a privilege to hear the insights provided by these Indigenous men and women and we deeply appreciate and respect the time they took to share their stories, experiences, and insight with us on this important topic. Some respondents requested to remain anonymous and others agreed to share their names.

Indigenous Communities, Women, and Water Water has significant cultural importance to Indigenous communities in Canada. For Indigenous peoples

and their ways of life, water is a living thing, a spiritual entity with “life-giving” forces, which comes with certain duties and responsibilities to ensure that it is respected, protected, and nurtured.8-11 As Ardith Walkem, an Indigenous lawyer of the Nlaka’pamux Nation in British Columbia (BC) explains, “Water is the lifeblood of the land and of the indigenous peoples and cultures that rely upon it.”12 For Indigenous peoples, water quantity

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CIER

T’souke Elder teaching youth and CIER staff how to bless the waters in prayer.

and quality are not only ecological and health issues but also parts of a much broader holistic perspective which recognizes that all aspects of Creation are interrelated.13 Water is not only for drinking but also has traditionally and continuously been used in ceremonies, to grow medicines, and for cleansing and purification.3,8 Water is provided by Mother Earth, and mothers create children in water (amniotic fluid). Water is sacred and must be cared for, because without mothers and the water provided by Mother Earth we would not exist.10 Indigenous women have a strong and distinct physical and spiritual relationship with water and have traditionally been tasked with caring for it as it provides us with our first water environment in the womb, announces

our birth, and sustains life. Thus, Indigenous women are often called the “Keepers of the Water” or “Carriers of the Water,”2,3,14,15 as the inheritors of water knowledge, protection, and management.9 As Animkiiquay (Katherine Morrisseau-Sinclair) from the Bear Clan and member of the Mideahniquay Society of Three Fires Midewiwin Society explains: We teach our daughters and granddaughters they are the caretakers and protectors of the water and how to use the sacred water bundle that we have been blessed to carry to help us do this work. This bundle holds the traditional teachings, songs, prayers and ceremonies of our Ancestors generations back.16

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Attached to this role as caretakers of the water are the responsibilities to respect, honor, and express our gratitude to water and its spirit through ceremonies and songs, enabling water to fulfill its role to provide for Mother Earth and, in turn, all her creatures, including humans.9,10 For example, given that women are especially strong in spirit during their “moon time” and the moon cycles with the water, there are songs that Indigenous women will sing to Grandmother Moon to acknowledge how women are tied to water and Mother Earth, water within us, and the water that sustains us.17 Through this caretaker role, women also care for and protect the water in various ways (e.g., talking circles, water walks, and protecting water sources through traditional

protocols).18,19 Gugula, an Indigenous woman from Joeyaska reserve in central interior British Columbia, explained that her “grandmother’s role was to ensure everyone adhered to the traditional protocols that informed how we, collectively as a community, were to care for this particular water resource.”20 Across Canada, several groups of Indigenous women are also advocating for clean drinking water and raising awareness on a political level about the impacts development is having on our water resources. The forces of colonization have worked to create disconnects with the land and therefore in the role of women in water governance.

Through the historical process of colonization (e.g., loss of lands and resources, the establishment of reserves, residential schools, foreign religions, and other federal government laws and policies to maintain control over Indigenous peoples and communities), a culture of discrimination and disenfranchised women and children has emerged. This has been achieved primarily through disconnecting Indigenous people from the land and from the knowledge and practices of previous generations; mothers were not able to learn from their mothers and in turn were unable to teach their children to become mothers. The result is a myriad of social, political, health, and economic challenges such as substance abuse, lower life expectancy, suicide, and chronic health conditions that continue to plague communities.

“The status of Indigenous women has been under attack since the colonization of our territories began. Restoring the role of Indigenous women in all forms of governance would interrupt this and begin to restore our governance.” 21

Inequities exist in the involvement of Indigenous women in water governance, necessitating the restoration of women’s rightful place in and responsibilities to water governance.

Indigenous women face inequities when compared to their Canadian peers, in part as an outcome of colonization and subsequent termination and assimilation policies such as the Indian Act,22,23 which disempowered Indigenous women and excluded them from decision-making processes.4,24 These decisions are the ones that have frequently resulted in the proliferation of high risk drinking water systems in many Indigenous communities in Canada. Several factors such as fragmented jurisdictional issues, marginalization through placing Indigenous communities on reserves, inadequate financial resources and infrastructure, disempowerment, small population size, and physical remoteness of communities have contributed to these high risk systems. The important relationship between Indigenous women and water is largely ignored. For example, Indigenous women were not part of the national expert panel assembled in 2006 to explore options for a regulatory framework to ensure safe drinking water in communities.25 However, despite the forces of colonization that displaced Indigenous women from their traditional roles as leaders and teachers within their communities, and devalued their knowledge and contributions to sustaining community and creation,9,22,25 Indigenous women continue to show resiliency and strength. They are reasserting their responsibility in nationhood and sustainability and creating contemporary roles in decision-making around water issues at the local, regional, and national levels.

Sharing Water Experiences Indigenous women across the country are raising their voices to draw attention not only to water issues faced in Indigenous communities, but also water issues that affect all Canadians.

The following are a few inspirational illustrations of specific events and initiatives from across Canada. These activities empower and support Indigenous women, building a movement of understanding about the role Indigenous women play with regards to water, the inequities in the involvement of women in water governance, and the need for restoring women’s rightful place in these processes. These experiences support not only awareness but also the participation of Indigenous women in local, regional, and national water dialogues. Mother Earth Water Walkers In 2003, a group of Anishinaabe women led by Grandmother Josephine Mandamin of the 3 Fires Lodge initiated the Mother Earth Water Walks (MEWWS) to raise awareness of water issues, both the sacred connection between people—especially women—and the waters, and how women take care of water.26 The first of these water walks took place in the spring of 2003, when the group walked around Lake Superior with a copper pail (due to its sacred and healing properties) of water to draw attention to the need for action regarding water issues. There were subsequent walks each year around the Great Lakes. The MEWWs have become an action of solidarity as many women have taken up the role of speaking and caring for water, renewing their traditional responsibilities,27 and supporting each other. Katherine MorrisseauSinclair is one Indigenous woman that was inspired by Grandmother Josephine Mandamin to start the Lake Winnipeg Water Walk and commit to taking care of Lake Winnipeg.28 In recognition for their work, Morrisseau-Sinclair and the Lake Winnipeg Water Walk received the 2014 Champion for Sustainability award from the Manitoba Round Table for Sustainable Development and the Department of Conservation and Water Stewardship.29

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CIER

After a week-long water and leadership workshop during which they carried and cared for jars of water, Elder and Youth Water Leaders returned the water to the Similkameen River.

Yinka Dene Alliance In BC, pipeline development has spurred Indigenous women to rally their communities to achieve a unified, stronger voice for water. As the Enbridge gas company was proposing the Northern Gateway Pipeline to various communities along its routes, a group of Indigenous women from the Saik’uz First Nation focused on building ties with other First Nations in BC. The result was the Yinka Dene Alliance, consisting of six First Nations that united to stop the pipeline. The alliance is drawing on Canadian, international, and Indigenous law to prevent the expansion of the oil industry while organizing campaigns

to raise awareness of the devastating impacts of oil sands extraction. The Alliance developed the Save the Fraser Declaration, signed by over 1,600 First Nations and allied American Indian groups, which bans pipelines from their traditional territories in the Fraser River watershed.30 Ontario Indigenous Women’s Water Commission The Ontario Indigenous Women’s Water Commission (OIWWC) was established by the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA). It represents women from across the 54 ONWA locals, their board members, and Elders. The OIWWC “strives to

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reassert and promote the traditional and inherent roles of Indigenous women as the caretakers of the waters by engaging in traditional practices, participating in education and planning on water issues, and forming relationships among Indigenous women.”9 The OIWWC developed a Water Rights Toolkit with input from local Elders and community members that recognizes the unique relationship that Indigenous women share with water. It was created to empower Indigenous women who are confronted with water-rights issues and to support them to effectively engage in decisionmaking processes around water at the community and governmental levels.9

The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), a First Nation-directed environmental nonprofit organization with charitable status, has been working on Indigenous water issues for many years.31 From 2012 to 2013, CIER led an ambitious and successful ‘Youth Water Leaders’ project where 16 Indigenous youth (of which eight were female) from four different communities (Beausoleil First Nation, Lower Similkameen Indian Band, Iskatewizaagegan #39 Independent First Nation, and Fort Smith) representing each of Canada’s four main watersheds were engaged in and educated about water issues. This initiative gave the youth an opportunity to become leaders in the challenge to have universal access to safe drinking water and healthy freshwater ecosystems across the country. During four, week-long workshops (one in each partnering community), the youth learned from and were inspired by a variety of Elders and community and Canadian leaders from media, politics, advocacy, literary, science, and other relevant fields. The youth were commissioned to work together to craft real solutions to water issues, which they implemented with the support of their local communities and CIER. Respected Indigenous women were involved in each workshop to share with the youth traditional teachings about water and how it is being managed and perform water ceremonies. In one particular exercise, the youth had to take care of a jar of water for a week, put positive energies into the water, speak lovingly to the water, and take it everywhere they went. At the end of the workshop week, they returned the water to the river. This taught the youth that water is life and deserves to be taken care of

and respected. Since completing this program, female Indigenous youth from Iskatewizaagegan #39 formed an environmental and water organization called Ferda Water. The group has implemented a peer-to-peer learning approach by sharing what they have done with youth from other First Nations (e.g., starting a community garden and water testing workshops). As a result, those youth have gone back to implement similar initiatives.32 Water Declaration of the First Nations in Ontario In October 2008, First Nations communities from across Ontario met in Garden River First Nation to share their perspectives on water and to discuss current water issues and models on how to move forward in protecting the waters. This led to the Water Declaration of the Anishinaabek, Mushkegowuk and Onkwehonwe in Ontario, which explains the importance of water to the First Nations culture and their responsibilities to protect and respect the waters for future generations. The Declaration clearly articulates the important role Anishinaabek, Mushkegowuk, and Onkwehonwe women play as “the keepers of the waters as women bring babies into the world carried on by the breaking of the water and… through the teachings of women have the responsibility to care for the land and the waters by our Creator.”33

“Aboriginal women have a special connection to water that mainstream society has not considered in formal decision-making processes. This lack of recognition has not stopped Aboriginal women from fulfilling their obligations. They continue to do as they have always done, guided by spiritual teachings, traditions, values, and ceremonies.” 25

Mi’kmaq Women Protest Indigenous people around the country are rising up to stand against developments that impact water. In October of 2013, a protest against shale gas exploration in New Brunswick came to a head against Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers. The majority of protestors were Mi’kmaq women who were upholding their traditional responsibilities to care for the water. The women drummed, sang, prayed, and smudged RCMP officers. However, the protest escalated to the point where the RCMP intervened with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and dogs for crowd control and arrested 40 people. A respected Mi’kmaq Elder from Elsipogotg First Nation said that it should not be called a protest, saying rather, “I want to call it protect. We are here to protect our water, our land. We have a river. It’s a beautiful river. We love it and respect it.”34

Weaving the Threads of Indigenous Engagement and Empowerment Water is life and needs to be respected. With Indigenous women’s sacred connections to water comes responsibilities to protect and nurture it for current and future generations. Indigenous women’s voices need to be valued and their positions re-established in their roles regarding water governance to better inform the water governance dialogue at all scales. As this is a national problem that requires local solutions, how this is accomplished will vary across the country depending on several factors, including the historical role of Indigenous women, internal and external influences, and readiness and available capacity to engage. However, through developing these solutions, there are some overarching principles articulated in documents such as the United Nations Declaration on

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the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the process provided for in both the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Report, and the Truth and Reconciliation Report, in addition to leading Supreme Court of Canada decisions respecting and incorporating traditional teachings and knowledge into how water is governed and improving gender equity through shared leadership. Ultimately, the engagement and empowerment of Indigenous women will contribute towards promoting the sustainability of our waters, lands, communities, and families. Through literature, inspirational examples, and personal communication with Indigenous men and women from across Canada, a framework emerged that is guided by several key principles and mechanisms to support the success of engaging and re-empowering Indigenous women in water governance. This framework of principles and mechanisms can support a discussion on how Indigenous women will reassert their traditional and contemporary roles as caretakers of water.

Key Principles In order to effectively support Indigenous women in asserting their traditional role as the “Keepers of the Water,” the following principles should be considered: • Knowledge sharing and shared learning: Indigenous women knowing their history, and opportunities for gathering to listen, share, and reflect in different ways (e.g., speaking, walking, and ceremonies) and spaces (e.g., on the land, in workshops, and in online forums). • Scale of connections: Once Indigenous women have knowledge, they can organize at different scales (locally, nationto-nation, provincially, and nationally).

• Communication: Communication between Indigenous women, nonIndigenous women, and others will take varying amounts of time and require different strategies, including harnessing social media and other outlets to share and retain experiences and knowledge. • Flexibility, time, and patience: Change, and the processes by which change occurs, cannot be prescribed. Change must be organic, emerging from communities while recognizing the need for balance between the urgency of need, constraints of time, and resources available. • Relationships: Taking the time to establish relationships through respect and gaining trust; the importance of listening; and, mutual respect for different cultures (e.g., historical influences, traditional protocols, and ceremonies). • Readiness for change: Having the desire, space, and capacity for Indigenous women to engage in a water dialogue through planning and engagement with local, provincial, and national governments. • Roles and responsibilities: Solutions will require different stakeholders, including NGOs, governments, and academia across levels to start action and facilitate change. • Engagement: Engagement processes will be different across Canada, but women should be the drivers of the engagement process. • Values: Even though contexts (economic, social, environmental, and cultural) continue to change, values remain the same and it is essential to find ways to incorporate traditional values. • Leadership: Providing opportunities and resources for Indigenous women to take on a variety of culturally appropriate and self-defined leadership roles.

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Pathways to Success The following mechanisms can be employed to develop and implement these processes while upholding the key principles to support Indigenous women in reasserting and reclaiming their influence on water governance: • Using shared approaches: Enable Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, groups, and communities to learn from one another, engage, and re-empower Indigenous women to influence water governance processes. • Clear, tangible, actionable solutions: Learn from other actionable solutions that have successfully involved and promoted Indigenous women, such as the unity of six First Nations to develop the Yinka Dene Alliance or the OIWWC, which was constituted by Indigenous women. • Identification of key individuals and the role of traditional knowledge holders: For example,

the Water Walkers recognize and embrace/act upon/reclaim the important role of traditional knowledge holders in raising awareness about the importance of water. • Tools, skills, and knowledge platforms: Scale out of proven solutions requires sharing experiences and knowledge that can kick-start action without having to reinvent the canoe. Innovations in information and computer technologies are making this global shared learning more accessible to more people. In order to maximize the impact of these resources, training opportunities are required by everyone involved with water to ensure the ability to discern, analyze, and implement solutions.35 There are international resources showcasing the development and utility of tools, skills, and

Lake Winnipeg Water Walk

Katherine Morrisseau-Sinclair, an Indigenous woman who, inspired by Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, started the Lake Winnipeg Water Walk.

knowledge platforms that could be adapted for engaging and empowering Indigenous women in water governance.36,37 Other national examples could include the creation of a proposed Indigenous water security toolkit that has an Indigenous gender lens or an online knowledge portal where Indigenous women can virtually meet and discuss collaborative opportunities for starting action and creating change with regards to Indigenous women’s role in water governance.

• A safe and respectful space to gather and participate in a meaningful manner: For

example, using traditional rules of engagement, opening meetings with traditional ceremonies, and involving and recognizing Elders when appropriate. • Engagement needs to be efficient and effective: Problems need to be addressed by sharing solutions, establishing concrete action plans, implementing these plans in a timely manner, and ensuring success through iterative evaluation.38

• Sufficient resources and adequate timing to facilitate maximum participation: Indigenous

women often lack the resources (financial, human, technical, time) to adequately engage in water governance processes and create sustainable change. These constraints need to be recognized, understood, and negated/ neutralized to facilitate maximum participation.

“We continue to educate and support women’s knowledge of the important role water plays in both the traditional sense and the environmental sense, and how valuable their role is in protecting the water. We restore their roles through educating and through traditional knowledge.” 39

Challenges There are several potential barriers to engaging Indigenous women and supporting them in their water stewardship roles. The solutions to these types of challenges will vary and will require a multipronged approach. However, to address these solutions requires building relationships based on respect, reconciliation, and responsibility. One barrier that must be overcome is that traditional knowledge keepers are often not involved in dialogues and decision-making and appropriate cultural protocols are not acknowledged. Another barrier is that men often dominate leadership positions without engaging Indigenous women. For example, in some paternalistic-based Indigenous communities where women are not allowed to participate in certain cultural ceremonies (e.g., sweat lodges or using a traditional drum), fewer women are in leadership roles. On the other hand, in some maternalistic-based Indigenous communities that have been influenced

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by colonial processes, Indigenous women have lost their traditional roles as water leaders. A third barrier is the broader impact from colonialism (e.g., residential schools, disconnect to the land, loss of language and culture) and the need for truth and reconciliation providing an additional incentive to move forward with engaging Indigenous women in reclaiming their role in water governance. In order to collectively overcome these barriers, it is essential to redress the balance of women from economic, cultural, and social perspectives. This will only happen if time and money are not used as excuses to constrain the processes because the “best decisions take the appropriate length of time.” It is a balancing act to bring traditional knowledge, values, and practices into new processes, although increasingly the balance is being recognized and operationalized. As people continue to understand and respect the role of Indigenous women, they will continue to embrace opportunities to engage them in water governance processes.

Bringing Indigenous women together not only supports efforts in asserting their traditional roles as the “keepers of the water,” but also engages Indigenous women (at different scales) in water stewardship activities. While not necessarily true at the individual level, collectively, women have been identified as effective agents of change and innovators of solutions.38 Harnessing the gender traits and traditional roles of Indigenous women in particular, could lead to policy development that, in addition to addressing ecological integrity, community sustainability, and cultural restoration, addresses broader gender equality. It further creates opportunities for children to learn traditional practices related to water alongside their mothers and a critical space for Indigenous women to connect, learn, and share for sustainable empowerment and engagement. Ultimately, it is essential to create kinship among Indigenous women and non-Indigenous peoples to protect water resources and the environment for future generations.

change and overcome the historical intergenerational, intergovernment, and intergender complexities that will move us towards a sustainable society from an equitable water security perspective. References 1. Benton-Banai, E. The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway (Indian County Communications, Hayward WI, 1998). 2. Craft, A. Anishninaabe Nibi Inaakonigewin report: Reflecting the water laws research gathering conducted with Anishinaabe Elders [online] (2013). http://create-h2o.ca/pages/annual_conference/ presentations/2014/ANI_Gathering_Report_-_ June24.pdf. 3. McGregor, D & Whitaker, S. Water quality in the province of Ontario: An aboriginal knowledge perspective. Prepared for the Chief of Ontario [online] (2001). http://www.chiefs-of-ontario.org/sites/default/ files/files/TEKwaterCOOpaperWORD.pdf. 4. Phare, MP. Restoring the lifeblood: Water, First Nations and opportunities for change [online] (Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, Toronto, 2011). http://www.onwa.ca/upload/documents/firstnation-water-report-lo-res.pdf. 5. McCue, D. Tsilhqot’in land ruling was a game changer [online] (2014). http://www.cbc.ca/news/ aboriginal/tsilhqot-in-land-ruling-was-a-gamechanger-for-b-c-1.2875262. 6. POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. Tsilhqot’in Nation v B.C. Summary of Panel Discussions on the Supreme Court of Canada Decision [online] (2014).

Outcomes As these principles and mechanisms are applied, Indigenous women will be supported and re-empowered in their roles as water stewards and leaders of the water governance dialogue. The inspirational illustrations of specific events and initiatives from across Canada shared in this reflection have resulted in: i) renewing traditional responsibilities of Indigenous women; ii) the development of declarations to protect land and resources and re-establish Indigenous women’s roles as water leaders in task forces, working groups, and new administrative positions in community, local, and national governance; and, iii) the creation of a youth environmental and water organization. While the broader outcomes are plentiful and will vary across contexts, these are just a few that can be highlighted from these reflections.

“A traditional role of women in water governance will allow us to undertake activities that are respectful of water and thus attempt to keep our society in balance.” 40

http://poliswaterproject.org/sites/default/files/ Tsilhqot’inPanelBrief_FINAL.pdf. 7. Government of British Columbia. British Columbia’s Water Act Modernization: Technical Background Report (Government of British Columbia, Victoria BC, 2010). 8. Lavalley, G. Aboriginal traditional knowledge and source water protection: First Nations’ views on taking care of water (Chiefs of Ontario, Toronto ON, 2006).

These outcomes can only be realized through a willingness, on behalf of all people (Indigenous and non-Indigenous, men and women), to understand and act upon the recognition of gender equities, the lack of access to efficient and safe drinking water in Indigenous Canadian communities, and the importance of reconciliation between Indigenous communities and the rest of Canadian society. In developing solutions to these three issues, they cannot be viewed in isolation but as a collective that can be used to catalyze

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9. Ontario Native Women’s Association. Ontario Indigenous Women’s Water Commission Toolkit [online] (2014). http://www.onwa.ca/upload/ documents/water-commission-toolkit-final.pdf. 10. Longboat, S. First Nations water security: Security for Mother Earth. Canadian Woman Studies 30(2/3): 6–13 (2015). 11. Personal Communication, 2016. 12. Walkem, A. The Land is Dry: Indigenous Peoples, Water, and Environmental Justice in Eau Canada (ed Bakker, K.) (UBC Press, Vancouver, 2007): 303–319. 13. McGregor, D. Linking traditional knowledge and environmental practice in Ontario. Journal of Canadian Studies: 69–100 (2009). 14. Anderson, K. Aboriginal women, water and health: Reflections from Eleven First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Grandmothers [online] (2010). http://www. pwhce.ca/pdf/women.

CIER

A Fisher River Cree Nation Elder shares stories of historical and contemporary uses of water, and women’s roles as caretakers of the water. 15. Personal Communication 2016. 16. Morrisseau-Sinclair, K. Personal Communication, 2016. 17. Personal Communication, 2016. 18. Cave, K. Exploring the Influences of Institutions

28. Morrisseau-Sinclair, K. Lake Winnipeg Water Walk [online] (2014). http://lakewinnipegwaterwalk.ca/a-

brings-women-front-lines-fight-water-152169. 35. Schuster-Wallace, CJ & Sandford, RW. Water in the

personal-statement-to-help-you-understand-my-

world we want - catalysing national water-related

passion-katherine-morrisseau-sinclair/.

sustainable development. United Nations University

29. Government of Manitoba. 2014 Manitoba

Institute for Water, Environment and Health and

on Water Governance and Management: First

Excellence in Sustainability Award Winners

United Nations Office for Sustainable Development

Nation Case Study. University of Waterloo

Announced [online] (2015). http://news.gov.mb.ca/

[online] (2015). http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/

[online] (2012). http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/

news/index.html?item=33850&posted=2015-01-28.

bitstream/10012/6492/3/Cave_Katherine_2012.pdf.

30. Nobel Women’s Initiative. Breaking ground:

uploads/2015/02/Water-in-the-World-We-Want.pdf. 36. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water,

19. Personal Communication, 2016.

Women, oil and climate change in Alberta

Population and Communities. National Water

20. Gugula. Personal Communication, 2016.

and British Columbia [online] (2013). http://

Knowledge and Research Platform. Canberra,

21. Spillett, T, Nehiyaw (Cree). Personal

nobelwomensinitiative.org/wp-content/

Australia: Commonwealth of Australia [online]

uploads/2013/10/Breaking-Ground.pdf.

(2012). https://www.environment.gov.au/system/

Communication, 2016. 22. Assembly of First Nations. Submission in support of the 4th National Aboriginal Women’s Summit – Promoting Empowerment, Equity and Leadership

31. Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources [online]. www.yourcier.org.

files/pages/d60c10f0-35e2-4050-896b-a7ef6780aa8e/ files/nwkrp.pdf.

32. Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources

37. Camkin, J. Sharing stakeholder knowledge in

[online] (2014). http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/

(CIER). Ferda Water Shoal Lake #39 First Nation

water resource management across boundaries

end_violence/afn_wc_nawsivsubmission.pdf.

Community Water Action Plan [online] (2014).

and interfaces: experiences from Australia and

http://iffculture.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/

New Zealand UNESCO HELP basins. Proceedings

Community-Water-Action-Plan_Shoal-Lake_

of the TWAM2013 International Conference &

FINAL.pdf.

Workshops [online]. http://icm.landcareresearch.

23. Department of Justice Canada. Indian Act (R.S., 1985, c.1-5) (Department of Justice Canada, Ontario, 1985). 24. Personal Communication, 2016. 25. McGregor, D. Anishinaabe-Kwe, traditional

33. Chiefs of Ontario. Water Declaration of the

knowledge and water protection. Canadian Woman

Anishinaabek, Mushkegowuk and Onkwehonwe in

Studies 26(3/4): 26–31 (2008).

Ontario [online] (2010). http://www.chiefs-of-ontario.

26. Mother Earth Water Walk. PowerPoint presentation on Mother Earth Water Walk [online] (2010). www. motherearthwaterwalk.com. 27. McGregor, D. Indigenous women, water justice

co.nz/knowledgebase/publications/public/ TWAM2013_Paper_submission_Camkin_final.pdf. 38. Schuster-Wallace, CJ, Cave, K, Bouman-Dentener,

org/sites/default/files/files/COO%20water%20

A & Holle, F. Women, WaSH, and the Water for Life

declaration%20revised%20march%202010.pdf.

Decade. United Nations University Institute for

34. Troian, M. Mi’kmaq anti-fracking protest brings women to the front lines to fight for water [online]

Water, Environment and Health and the Women for Water Partnership (2015).

and zaagidowin (love). Canadian Woman Studies

(2013). http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.

39. Big Eagle, L. Personal Communication, 2016.

30(2/3),:71–78 (2015).

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40. Paul, K. Personal Communication, 2016.

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Karanja, D.M., R.K. Senelwa, and D. Mokong’u. (2016). Women Tackle Household Drinking Water in Rural Kenya. Solutions 7(6): 74-79. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/women-tackle-household-drinking-water-in-rural-kenya/

Feature

Women Tackle Household Drinking Water in Rural Kenya by Diana M. Karanja, Ruth K. Senelwa, and Douglas Mokong’u

COHESU

This river is the main source of water for the Kisian women, who have no piped water.

In Brief Approximately 1.8 billion people in the world consume contaminated water, potentially containing diarrhea-causing pathogens and presenting a threat to the development and health of the global community. Diarrheal disease disproportionately causes high levels of deaths in low-income countries, with rural communities being particularly vulnerable. Women have a high stake in safe water access and are well placed to play major roles in household water provisioning; thus, it is recognized that their involvement in water projects can make such initiatives more effective. However, this requires better access to credit and an improved knowledge-base for safe water. This paper discusses the experience of a group of women in a rural community in Kisumu County in western Kenya, in using group support for microfinance to purchase biosand filters for improved drinking water. 74 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

afe water access is recognized as a basic human right important for human health and dignity, as well as essential to the social and economic development of any community. In 2010, the United Nations adopted resolution 64/292, recognizing the right to safe and clean drinking water as a human right. Yet nearly 750 million people still depend on unimproved sources of drinking water with increased risk to diarrheal diseases; half of these are in sub-Saharan Africa.1 The East African countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania all border Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake in the world. However, the close proximity to a large body of freshwater and major cities has little bearing on access to safe water for many of the rural communities. In 2006, only 57 percent of Kenya’s 36.6 million people had access to improved drinking water. Updated coverage of water access for Kenya according to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program’s report in 2015 is shown in Table 1.2 Diarrheal disease is reported to be the second leading cause of death in children under five years old, and is responsible for killing around 760,000 children every year.3 In an effort to reverse this situation, the global community resolved to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015 through Goal 7 of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Although the MDG target for drinking water was met five years ahead of schedule, a significant proportion of the population in sub-Saharan Africa still contends with consumption of untreated water from rivers, lakes, ponds, and irrigation canals as their main sources of drinking water, particularly in the rural areas, where more than 80 percent of the approximately 768 million people

who have no access to an improved water source globally live.4 The World Health Organization and UNICEF estimate that 84 percent of rural communities have access to improved drinking water sources, as opposed to 94 percent of urban populations.2 At the conclusion of the MDG period, a new universal agenda was formulated in the form of a set of integrated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Reduction of water-related diseases

Key Concepts • Access to safe water is a challenge in East African countries, despite proximity to the second largest freshwater lake in the world. • The burden of safe-water provision for families is generally borne by women. • Effective health communication in rural communities helps to broaden knowledge on water–health links and improves the demand for safe water. • Providing low-cost technologies can make significant contributions to alleviating the burden of safe water access in rural areas of East Africa. • Access to financial support for women in rural areas is necessary for safe water and can be accomplished through microfinancing.

is part of Goals 3 and 6 of this new agenda, which aim to ensure a substantial reduction in the number of deaths and illnesses caused by water contamination and the availability and sustainable management of safe water and sanitation for all ages by 2030.5 Achieving these goals will require intense scaling up of water development infrastructure in areas that performed below target for the MDGs.

Women and Water As the managers of households, women bear the primary responsibility for providing water and ensuring its quality in much of the world today. It is reported that their involvement can make water projects six to seven times more effective.6 Whereas women’s participation in water provisioning requires upfront capital, many financial institutions generally do not have confidence in rural women’s capacity to repay loans, and thus their access to financial resources is limited. Fortunately, women in many parts of the developing world are finding strength in numbers by working in groups to achieve goals that would otherwise be impossible individually. In Kenya, this takes on the form of “Chama,” which is Swahili for a group of people with a common goal. Several “Chama” categories are recognized, such as self-help groups, merry-gorounds, or investment groups in which members pay an amount of money every week or month to be used by the group for investment, loans, or dividends from their microsavings.7 “Chamas” were originally popularized by women and were almost exclusively made up of women coming together for the purpose of improving the well-being of their families, usually transacting small sums of money. This is no longer the case. These groups can be women, men, or mixed gender and can involve transactions of millions of shillings. This platform is popular with women’s groups in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya, and is now being used by Kisian women to access safe water.

Kisian Women’s Group Kisian Community is located approximately 12 kilometers from the city of Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. The city has made great strides in developing the water sector but has yet to lay the infrastructure that is required to bring the peri-urban and rural areas safe water

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Drinking water coverage estimates Urban (%) Kenya

Rural (%)

Total (%)

1990

2015

1990

2015

1990

2015

Piped onto premises

Other improved source

Other unimproved

Surface water

22 WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2015

Table 1. Drinking water coverage in Kenya.

commodities and services. Community members therefore depend on unimproved water options such wells or lake, river, or pond surface water for their households (Table 2). Kisian women play a major role in maintaining the well-being of their households, a role that has over time expanded to include income generation to supplement that of their husbands. Forming groups for income generation is thus popular in the community. The Kisian Women’s Group, consisting of 25 women, was initially formed as a “Merry-Go-Round,” contributing very small amounts of money every week to give one member on a rotational basis. These contributions have grown into amounts that have enabled them to open a savings account, with plans in the near future to start a group project and provide loans from their own savings. Through their collaborative activities with the non-governmental organization Community Health Support program (COHESU),8 Kisian women initiated a program of purchasing biosand filters for safe water. They chose to do this through external microfinancing, with COHESU facilitating access to microfinance and training in water and health. The women act as each other’s guarantors, thus ensuring that each member repays her loan installment at each meeting.

Biosand filters were chosen after consideration of the socio-economic status of community members and the difficulty of accessing piped water due to cost and distance from the nearest piped water source.9 The filters are sourced from Aqua Clara International,10 and COHESU organizes for the delivery of the sand filters to the community. COHESU also provides training to the women on the linkages between unsafe water and health, while Aqua Clara International offers trainings on the usage and maintenance of the biosand filters. In preparation for the installation of sand filters, dialogues were held with the group on the topics of water filtration and water treatment methods, as well as options for financing the filters, either internally within the group or by external microfinance. The women were also given time to discuss the filters with their families. The women chose external microfinancing since their savings were not yet at a level that could finance the filters for all group members. After installation, the filters were monitored on a weekly basis by COHESU personnel for breakdowns, maintenance, and efficiency of filtration, while cultures of the water were taken every three months by Aqua Clara to determine the quality of the filtered water.

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Twelve members of the group have had the filters installed so far. COHESU provides continuous education to create awareness of the importance of water quality and its relation to reduction in disease burden.

Progress for Kisian Women Apart from the weekly inspection of the filters, monitoring is also conducted through updates by the women during their weekly meetings, whereby the women provide feedback on acceptance and performance of the filters. So far, no woman has neglected or stopped using the filters. Initially, filter maintenance varied from house to house, but with more training, the women were more consistent in the proper maintenance of the filters. None of the households of those with filters has reported any diarrhea cases in the six months post-installation. The primary source of water for the different households varied significantly and created differences in how fast the water from the filters improved. For most of the women, the primary source was river water. One woman was using unprotected well water, and rain water was also used by all during the wet season. These differences in water sources led to variability in the rate at which water from different households cleared.

Improved water

Unimproved water

Treated Public taps

Unprotected boreholes

Protected wells

Unprotected dugouts

Boreholes

Unprotected rainwater

Treated piped water into homes

Dams, rivers, lake, Irrigation canals

Water disinfection products- home chlorination products, flocculantsdisinfectant sachets

Bottled water

Household filtration systems – ceramic filters, bio sand filters, and LifeStraw®

Solar disinfection (SODIS)

Table 2. Water Access Options for Kisian Women

Less turbid water cleared fast after installation, while it took much longer for the water from more polluted sites to clear. To overcome this issue, the group was advised to allow the highly polluted water to sediment in a different container before pouring it into the biosand filters, which greatly improved the water. During the weekly discussions, it appears that the introduction of the filters has boosted the knowledge for safe water and its impacts on health. Some households share the filters in a number of compounds, and an interest in industrial sand filters has been expressed. Management of the filters and the quality of water is continuously improving.

Discussion One of the most profound statements that we heard from one of the Kisian women was that, “I can now carry my own bottled water when I go to public places and travel.” This particular statement was related not only to the quality of the water but also

to the perceived dignity associated with carrying clean bottled water for drinking in public. The WHO has guidance for monitoring and evaluating household water treatment and safe storage, which sets out performance criteria based on either the reduction of different types of pathogens or a proven health impact.11 Various studies have shown the impacts of the biosand filter on health (Box 1), largely demonstrating that the filters meet the WHO requirements for impacts on health, particularly in peri-urban and rural settings such as Kisian, where resources are limited and surface water is being used. The focus for the Kisian women now is to get the filters to work at optimum performance. A number of challenges have been encountered and tackled in this pursuit. Experience has shown the need for continuous training and monitoring. It is important to note that no free filter was given out, and all the loans were repaid, indicating that improved knowledge for safe

water must go hand in hand with economic empowerment of the women in the community. It will be interesting to see the long-term uptake of the filters through the “Chama” platform for the rest of the group members, and other groups in the community, and how long and well the filters are maintained. It will also be interesting to systematically monitor the impacts of this intervention on health. Acknowledgements This project continues to receive support in the form of great encouragement and financial donations of Friends of COHESU to whom we extend our sincere gratitude. We are thankful to TOMS Shoes for their donation of shoes to the children of participating communities, and to the staff of Aqua Clara International-Kenya for their expertise and technical support in the implementation of the project. We express our sincere thanks to COHESU volunteers who devote their time and knowledge in the implementation of this project, and to all the

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COHESU

A Kisian woman with filtered water for her family.

women of Kisian and their families for their enthusiasm and quest for knowledge, without which the project would not have achieved the current level of success. We are grateful to the management and staff of COHESU for their constant support. References 1. WHO & UNICEF. Progress on drinking water and sanitation: 2014 Update. (WHO Press, Geneva, 2014). 2. WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2015 Update and MDG Assessment [online] (2015). http://www.wssinfo.org/documents/?tx_ displaycontroller[type]=country_files. 3. WHO. Diarrheal disease. Fact sheet N°330 [online] (2013). http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/ fs330/en/.

4. WHO & UNICEF. Progress on sanitation and drinking-water. 2013 update (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, New York, 2013). 5. A new sustainable development agenda. UNDP [online] (2016). http://www.undp.org/content/undp/ en/home/sdgoverview.html. 6. Women at the centre of water, sanitation and

[online] (2016). http://aquaclara.org/where-wework/kenya/. 11. WHO & UNICEF. Household water treatment and safe storage. Toolkit for monitoring and evaluating household water [online] (2012). http://www. who.int/household_water/resources/toolkit_ monitoring_evaluating/en/. 12. Sisson, AJ, Wampler, PJ, Rediske, RR, McNair, JN &

hygiene programmes. Water Supply and Sanitation

Frobish, DJ. Long-term field performance of biosand

Collaborative Council [online] (2006). http://www.

filters in the Artibonite Valley, Haiti. American

eldis.org/go/home&id=19726&type=Document#.

Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 88(5): 862–

V8IESlt97IX. 7. Chama: The economic model that’s all the rage

867 (2013). 13. Sobsey, MD, Stauber, E, Casanova, LM, Brown, JM

in Kenya. Voices of Africa [online] (2013). http://

& Elliott, MA. Point of use household drinking

voicesofafrica.co.za/chama-the-economic-model-

water filtration: a practical, effective solution for

thats-all-the-rage-in-kenya/.

providing sustained access to safe drinking water in

8. COHESU [online] (2001). www.cohesu.com.

the developing world department of environmental

9. Bisung, E et al. One community’s journey to lobby

sciences and engineering. Environmental Science and

for water in an environment of privatized water: is Usoma too poor for the pro-poor program? African Geographical Review 35(1): 70–82 (2016). 10. Where We Work: Kenya. Aqua Clara International

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Technology 42(12): 4261–4267 (2008). 14. Clasen, TF et al. Interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhea. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 10: CD004794 (2015).

Box 1. Sand Filter Facts: Three Selected Studies • Duration of filter use ranged from <1 to 12 years. Kaplan-Meier analysis of filter lifespans showed that filter use remained high (>85 percent) up to seven years after installation. Several filters were still in use after 12 years, which is longer than documented in any previous study. Filtered water from 25 filters (86 percent) contained Escherichia coli concentrations of <20 most probable number of coliforms/100mL. Recontamination of stored filter water was negligible. Comparable results from previous studies in the same region and elsewhere show that biosand filter technology continues to be an effective and sustainable water treatment method in developing countries worldwide.12 • This study identified that ceramic and biosand household water filters are the most effective and have the greatest potential to become widely used and sustainable for improving household water quality to reduce water-borne disease and death.13 • Biosand filtration reduced diarrhea by approximately 50 percent consistently across five trials from lowto middle-income settings, again regardless of whether the water source or sanitation was improved or unimproved.14

COHESU

A Kisian woman displays filtered water. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2016 | Solutions | 79

Pink, R.M. (2016). Rainwater Harvesting: Water Security for Marginalized Communities in India. Solutions 7(6): 80-84. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/rainwater-harvesting-water-security-for-marginalized-communities-in-india/

Feature

Rainwater Harvesting: Water Security for Marginalized Communities in India by Ross Michael Pink

Barefoot Photographers of Tilonia

A school boy from Tilonia drinks from a tap hooked up to a rainwater harvesting tank that provides clean drinking water for the school children. The rainwater harvesting system collects rainwater from the roof of the school. It is filtered and stored for drinking in this semi-arid region of Rajasthan, India.

In Brief Rainwater harvesting is an affordable technology that can be used to enhance the lives and livelihoods of women and children. From poverty reduction and reduced time taken for water collection, to greater volumes of water available, rainwater harvesting is a solution that opens doors to education, better nutrition, and potential economic activity. In Southeast Asia, various technologies to harvest rainwater have been employed, from small dams to jars. Collectively, these have resulted in higher groundwater levels, economic opportunities, and improved health. Moreover, these grassroots solutions have driven changes in policy. 80 | Solutions | November-December 2016 | www.thesolutionsjournal.org

he most devastating threat to humanity in the 21st century is the lack of safe drinking water. In 2015, 663 million people globally were denied this elementary right, which imperils health, livelihood, and socio-economic development. Nearly 50 percent of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.1 Clearly, rapid population acceleration will impose new challenges on water supply and security in the coming decades. Water scarcity is propelled by two factors: 1) surging population growth in the developing world; and, 2) water depletion and/or contamination caused by global warming and rampant unchecked pollution. Diseases caused by contaminated water and unhealthy sanitation practices are a significant global health burden. Inadequate drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene are estimated to cause 842,000 diarrheal-disease deaths per year.2 According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, five billion people comprising 52 percent of global projected population of 9.7 billion by 2050 will live under conditions of severe water stress, and most of these inhabitants will be living in India, Africa, and the Middle East, areas already burdened by chronic water shortages.3 The linkage between water scarcity and human suffering is sobering: of the 663 million people without clean water, 48 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately one in nine people worldwide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water.4 Moreover, 143 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases.5 Over half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied with people suffering from illnesses linked with contaminated water, and more people die as a result of polluted water than are killed by all forms of violence, including wars.6 According to U.N. Water, “the most prevalent water quality problem

is eutrophication, a result of highnutrient loads (mainly phosphorus and nitrogen), which substantially impairs beneficial uses of water. Major nutrient sources include agricultural runoff, domestic sewage (also a source of microbial pollution), industrial effluents, and atmospheric inputs from fossil fuel burning and bush fires. Every day, two million tons of sewage and other effluents drain into the world’s waters. The most significant sources of water pollution are lack of adequate treatment of human wastes and inadequately managed and treated industrial and agricultural wastes.”7

Key Concepts • Water is becoming an endangered and scarce resource for billions of global inhabitants. • Approximately one in nine people worldwide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water. • Rainwater harvesting is an ancient and effective eco-friendly technique that has been utilized for over 3,500 years. • Rainwater harvesting provides abundant opportunities to successfully address significant water scarcity and health challenges in both urban and rural contexts.

The combined effects of population pressure, pollution, and climate change impacts such as drought are contributing to this precarious ecological and health crisis.6 Women, children, and the elderly in the developing world are the worst impacted. One solution that can be particularly cost effective is rainwater harvesting. One recent study noted that, “Rainwater harvesting would be one of the most conceivable and viable solutions to release the pressure on the groundwater table as the system utilizes natural rainwater without affecting groundwater sources.”8

Collecting rainwater is an ancient, effective, and eco-friendly technique that has been utilized for over 3,500 years. It has recorded use in early Greek, Chinese, Roman, and Arab civilizations. It is utilized to provide water for drinking as well as irrigation. Its application is particularly suitable to developing countries where technology and capital can be limited. The harvesting of rainwater is a simple process that involves the collection of water from the various surfaces upon which rainwater falls. Water can be collected from building rooftops, including houses and simple dwellings, and stored in rainwater tanks. The basic essentials include eaves or gutters, down pipes, rainwater drains, filters, and disinfectants. Eaves or rudimentary funnels can collect the water and provide a run-off tube that flows into barrels or storage tanks. The issue of sediment on the roof area or bacteria in the water can be solved by the use of filters and disinfectants. Basic filtration systems can utilize screen filters, paper filters, and carbon or charcoal filters. A reliable and safe system will depend upon more than one filter device. Often, a 50-micron size filter or equivalent screen is utilized to remove larger particles such as dirt. This would normally be followed by the use of additional 20- and 10-level micron filters, then smaller filters at the 10 and lower micron levels such that particles are progressively screened out. Disinfection of the water source is an important step in rainwater harvesting to eliminate pathogens and unsafe microorganisms. Typical disinfection methods include chlorine, ozonation, ultraviolet (UV) light, and membrane filtration. A report by Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management, an NGO working towards rural water solutions, observed that rainwater harvesting “is a simple low-cost technique that requires minimum specific expertise or knowledge and offers many benefits. For drinking

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water purposes in rural areas, the most common technique is small-scale rooftop rainwater harvesting: rainwater is collected on the roof and transported with gutters to a storage reservoir, where it provides water at the point of consumption.”9 “Water run-off from a roof can be directed with little more than a split pipe or piece of bamboo into an old oil drum (provided that it is clean) placed near the roof. The water storage tank or reservoir usually represents the biggest capital investment element of small-scale rooftop urban rainwater harvesting system and therefore requires careful design to provide optimal storage capacity while keeping the cost as low as possible. Installing a water harvesting system at household level can cost anywhere from USD$100 up to $1,000.”10 The fact that rainwater harvesting can be deployed on a small scale and in areas cut off from piped water supply means it offers strong benefits to marginalized and poor communities and is an effective guard against water scarcity and drought. Cisterns are the most popular rainwater harvesting storage technology. In this system, runoff rainwater is diverted from the rooftops of houses via gutters (made of bamboo, plastic, or metal) and stored in a closed tank or jar with a capacity of 5–50m3. In Brazil’s semi-arid region, a rooftop area of 40m2 can capture and store 16,000 liters of clean water for a single household.11 Perhaps most simply, rainwater harvesting means women, who do the bulk of water gathering in arid areas, no longer have to spend hours walking to wells each day, exposing them to danger and exhausting labor. Let’s take the example of India, the second most populous country in the world and burdened by significant poverty and income inequity. According to World Bank data, in 2010, there were 259.5 million Indians living on USD$1.90 per day.12 The country houses 16 percent of the global

population, yet only four percent of global water resources. By 2050, the population is expected to reach 1.6 billion people, surpassing China.13 Water stress is clearly evident in India, and as population surges, this situation will be exacerbated to the point of water scarcity in many parts of the country. In 2011, India had a per capita water availability of 1,545m3, a significant decrease from 5,177m3 in 1951. This dramatic decline, fueled by over pumping, rapid population growth, and exponentially increasing water demands, has created a water scarcity crisis in the country. India uses approximately 90 percent of fresh water sources for agriculture, one of the highest ratios in the world, and 60 percent of water use in agriculture originates from directly inﬁltrated rainfall. Water scarcity, climate change, drought, floods, water delivery infrastructure at the rural level, extreme poverty, waterborne diseases, and water pollution are combined challenges that confront the Indian government and people. How is rainwater harvesting having an impact? Studies indicate that water collection programs are having a profound impact in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan. An excellent example is found in the check dam movement in the parched Saurashtra region of Gujarat state. “This was a grassroots level movement that witnessed the formation of hundreds of village level institutions for organizing rainwater harvesting through planning, funding, and construction of a series of check dams as well as other rainwater harvesting structures in and around each village. The purpose was to collect and hold rainwater for a short time and recharge the underground aquifers, thereby bringing water to the open wells, most of which had run dry. From the late 1990s, such institutions have been formed in hundreds of villages in the region and the movement is reported to have had a signiﬁcant impact on water availability and agricultural incomes.”14

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In Rajasthan state, remarkable rainwater harvesting and water restoration initiatives, under the dedicated leadership of Rajendra Singh and his NGO, Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), have brought vast improvements in water sustainability and water security for hundreds of thousands of citizens. Singh, who founded TBS in 1985, was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize in 2015. One of the main projects involved building johads, which are small, earthen check dams that capture and conserve rainwater, thus improving percolation and groundwater recharge. Since 1985, johads have been established in more than 650 villages in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. The Bhaonta village in Alwar district of Rajasthan was named India’s “most outstanding environmental community,” and received the 2000 Joseph C. John Award for its community projects to promote rainwater harvesting and forest protection. “The johads and a series of anicuts (small concrete dams) were built by the local community with support from Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), an Alwar-based NGO and Gram Vikas Navyuvak Mandal Laporiya (GVNML), a Jaipurbased NGO. This has resulted in a general rise of the groundwater level by almost six meters and a 33 percent increase in the forest cover in the area. Therefore, the local ingenuity, indigenous knowledge, and pride of the villagers have regenerated the local Bhaonta forest where the more elaborate and costly structures built by expert engineers have typically failed.”15 A detailed study of rain-fed irrigation in India’s agricultural sector reveals the extent of improvements that can be attained: India ranks first among the rain-fed agricultural countries in terms of both extent (86 M ha) and value of produce. Farmers have started cultivating

high-value crops which require intensive use of inputs, most importantly, life-saving irrigation. Frequent occurrence of midseason and terminal droughts of 1 to 3-weeks consecutive duration during the main cropping season are the dominant reasons for crop (and investment) failures and low yields. Provision of critical irrigation during this period has the potential to improve the yields by 29 to 114 per cent for different crops. A detailed district and agro-Eco regional level study, comprising 604 districts, showed that on a potential (excluding very arid and wet areas) rain-fed cropped area of 25 M ha, a rainfall surplus of 9.97 M ha was available for harvesting. A small part of this water (about 18%) was adequate to provide one critical irrigation application of 18.75 M ha during a drought year and 22.75 M ha during a normal year. Water used in supplemental irrigation had the highest marginal productivity and increases in rain-fed production above 50% were achievable. More specifically, net benefits improved by about 3-times for rice, 4-times for pulses and 6-times for oilseeds. Droughts appear to have limited impact when farmers are equipped with rainwater harvesting systems. Water harvesting and supplemental irrigation was economically viable at the national level and would have limited impacts downstream during normal years. This decentralized and more equitable intervention targeted resource-poor farmers and has the potential to serve as an alternative strategy to the proposed river linking and water transfer projects.16

Nirmal Adhikari

A house with an attached rainwater harvesting tank in Chainpur, Nepal.

Such results have played a role in 18 out of India’s 28 states, where rooftop rainwater harvesting is now mandatory on new buildings. A report by the Stockholm Environment Institute noted substantial rural and gender equality benefits in India through the application of rainwater harvesting. “In India, rainwater harvesting has been a successful starting point to put development on a positive track addressing both improved human well-being and re-generation of degraded landscapes, in particularly semi-arid and sub-humid zones. Through national watershed programs, key interventions in rainwater harvesting on farmland have increased household food supply and incomes. Rainwater harvesting in common areas of the landscape has improved ecosystem productivity of biomass, infiltration of rainfall to recharge shallow groundwater, and reduced soil erosion. In many cases, additional effects have been observed, including gender equality improvements, and general community strengthening and organization.”17

Rainwater harvesting offers an environmentally safe, cost-efficient, and effective approach to water scarcity and water-borne diseases. In many situations, it offers the most sensible solution. The challenges of unsafe water, unstable water sources, and problematic water collection often falls disproportionately hard upon women and children. Through water collection methods which have demonstrated efficient and ecological applications in rural communities in India, abundant new opportunities can be applied in water-insecure nations worldwide to successfully address significant water scarcity and health challenges. References 1. International Decade for Action ‘WATER FOR LIFE’ 2005–2015. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [online] (2014). http:// www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml. 2. Water Sanitation Health. World Health Organization [online] (2014). www.who.int/water_ sanitation_health/diseases/en/. 3. Roberts, AG. MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Climate Change [online] (January 9, 2014). globalchange.mit.edu/pubs/all-reports.php.

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Joel Bassuk / Oxfam

Residents of the Sunderbans in the Indian state of West Bengal use diminishing underground resources to meet some of their drinking water needs, and harvest rainwater in shallow ponds for all other purposes, including household tasks and rearing fish. Here, a woman collects water at a hand pump. 4. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water – 2015

9. Gur, E & Spuhler, D. Rainwater harvesting (rural).

in 2050. Pew Research Center [online] (February

Update and MDG Assessment 2015. WHO/UNICEF

SSWM [online] (2010). http://www.sswm.info/

3, 2014). http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-

Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and

category/implementation-tools/water-sources/

tank/2014/02/03/10-projections-for-the-global-

Sanitation [online] (2015). http://www.wssinfo.

hardware/precipitation-harvesting/rainwater-

org/fileadmin/user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-

harvesting-r.

report-2015_English.pdf. 5. Human Development Report 2006: Beyond

10. Thomas, TH & Martinson, DB. Roofwater harvesting: a handbook for practitioners.

population-in-2050/. 14. Gandhi, VP & Bhamoriya, V. Rainwater harvesting for irrigation in India: potential, action, and performance [online] (2011). https://www.idfc.com/

scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis.

International Water and Sanitation Centre

United Nations Development Program [online]

[online] (2007). https://www.gov.uk/dfid-

(2006). http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-

research-outputs/roofwater-harvesting-a-

impact on society, economy and ecology.

development-report-2006.

handbook-for-practitioners.

International Rainwater Catchment Systems

6. Corcoran, E et al (eds). Sick Water? The central

11. Lehmann, C, Tsukada, R & Lourete, A. Low-cost

pdf/report/IIR-2011.pdf. 15. Goyal, RR & Bhushan, B. Rainwater Harvesting:

Association [online] (2005). http://eng.warwick.

role of wastewater management in sustainable

technologies towards achieving the millennium

development. A Rapid Response Assessment. United

development goals: the case of rainwater

Nations Environment Program, UN-HABITAT,

harvesting. The International Policy Centre

Utilization Rainwater Harvesting and Utilization

GRID-Arendal [online] (2010). www.grida.no.

for Inclusive Growth, Bureau for Development

(UN-HABITAT, Geneva, 2005) [online]. unhabitat.

Policy, UNDP and Government of Brazil

org/.../blue-drop-series-on-rainwater-harvesting-

7. International Decade for Action, Water for Life 2005-2015. UN Water [online] (2014). http://www.

[online] (2010). http://www.ipc-undp.org/pub/

un.org/waterforlifedecade/background.shtml.

IPCPolicyResearchBrief12.pdf.

8. Rahman, S et al. Sustainability of rainwater harvesting system in terms of water quality. The Scientific World Journal 2014, 721357 (2014).

12. Poverty and Equity Country Dashboard. World Bank [online] (2016). povertydata.worldbank.org. 13. Kochhar, R. 10 projections for the global population

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ac.uk/ircsa/pdf/12th/2/Goyal-Radha.pdf. 16. Blue Drop Series: Rainwater Harvesting and

and-utilisation-book-3project. 17. Stockholm Environmental Institute. Rainwater harvesting: a lifeline to human well-being. UN Water [online] (2009). http://www.unwater.org/ downloads/Rainwater_Harvesting_090310b.pdf.

Willms, D., R. Kaware, and S. Matovu. (2016). Micro-credit for WaSH: A Choice for Women in Uganda. Solutions 7(6): 85-92. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/micro-credit-for-wash-a-choice-for-women-in-uganda/

Feature

Micro-credit for WaSH: A Choice for Women in Uganda

by Dennis Willms, Rose Kawere, and Sarah Matovu Rose Kawere

Namaddu Scovia washes her hands at her tippy-tap, a simple apparatus for hand washing made from branches and a suspended plastic bottle.

In Brief Within the culture of poverty, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are challenged with how to initiate progressive development programs. Salama SHIELD Foundation (SSF) has worked in sub-Saharan Africa for over 27 years, with an original mandate to address HIV/AIDS concerns in one Uganda district that, in the mid-90s, had the highest incidence and prevalence of HIV globally. Implementing an approach to development based on participatory-action research principles, it garnered the trust of community members over many years of development work. SSF came alongside the community to revitalize a social–cultural institution of mentors (ssenga and kojja), which was lost at the height of the pandemic. Through long-term intervention and ethnographic research, the determinants of risk and vulnerability for HIV transmission were identified: young women in search of water, mobile market traders, long-distance truckers, cattle loaders, and commercial sex workers. Poverty, coupled with a peasant worldview that is characteristically resistant to change, threatens the resolve and resources of any NGO. Yet in this instance, an integrated response solution was offered through a microfinance scheme, which to date has provided loans to over 1,500 women. Yet, given the basic needs expressed by the women, HIV testing and counseling was also introduced, along with a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) intervention that has been adopted in homes and villages throughout the larger community. A core component in making this possible was the role of progressive, persuasive, and imaginative female leaders who mobilized other women into action through self-selected base community groups. Water harvesting facilities have been introduced, along with the necessary waste management, hygiene, and disease-preventive practices. WaSH interventions can successfully be sustained when participatory development processes are introduced, trust is securely established, and social entrepreneurs are nurtured and supported through a process of progressive change. www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2016 | Solutions | 85

alama SHIELD Foundation (SSF) is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that has been present in the Lyantonde District of Uganda for over 27 years. By virtue of its participatory-action research approach to development,1 SSF has secured and sustained the trust of community members. Many of the persons and families engaged in SSF’s educational and HIV prevention programs remain at risk for, or are affected by, HIV/AIDS. SSF’s previous and ongoing ethnographic research into the determinants of risk for HIV/ AIDS identified poverty, gender inequity, and limited access to potable water as some of the primary factors. To address these root causes of HIV/ AIDS risk and vulnerability, SSF initiated its Finance for Life Program, through which it continues to provide opportunities for un-bankable women to apply for and receive small loans to embrace and engage in worthwhile income-generating activities. Given the stories of suffering communicated by these women, who live in resource-limited rural settings, it became clear that their burdens were comprehensive in nature and scope. Their concerns were not limited to poverty but primarily linked to their expressed need to address the challenges of preventable diseases, access to potable water, education for their children, and food security. It was in the context of these larger concerns and stories shared with SSF’s team members that SSF intentionally incorporated an HIV/AIDS prevention component and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) initiative into the Finance for Life Program. Economic researchers have posited that the success of the WaSH program—in the context of SSF’s microfinance program—is largely attributable to a cautious trust achieved within subset community groups, that is, the self-identified groups of women applying for and

receiving loans.2 They also identify the long-term trust secured in their relationship with SSF. SSF staff travel to the remote, rural villages where loan recipients live, working alongside them to provide mentoring and support.

Key Concepts • Impoverished women living in southwestern Uganda cannot satisfy basic water needs. They ask, “How can we access safe water, take our children to school, secure nutritious food, and address the ravages of chronic disease?” • Living in the “dry corridor” of Uganda, where famine and drought is common, water sources are not safe. • Personal suffering is exaggerated by an entrenched belief that life is limited, with a cultural mindset that is distrustful of change. Externally offered opportunities (e.g., microfinance) are resisted, making progressive change difficult. • NGOs need to establish enduring and trusting relationships with these communities. This trust can be strengthened by offering microfinance opportunities that incorporate WaSH systems. • Individuals can be identified in the community who are forward-thinking, persuasive, and considered leaders, such as social entrepreneurs who mobilize women through a process of progressive change. • NGOs needs to remain true to their mandate and resolute in providing ongoing support, counsel, and advice as community members search to find better pathways out of poverty, and where WaSH is easily accepted.

SSF does not presume to satisfy all of the women’s needs in health, shelter, food security, education, finance, and water, but it can—as an organization committed to participatory development—identify the resources and capacities embodied within the women

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themselves and work with them to implement practical, problem-based solutions. These solutions are borne out of dialogue-fueled events, called conceptual events, held with groups of women.3 Diverse groups of women meet with community leaders, SSF representatives, and local government to reflect on the challenges, the root causes of these problems, and, over time, are drawn into a participatory process of co-constructing practical solutions that they can implement. This is not a top–down strategy. It is an authentically bottom–up social reasoning process that is practical, contextually aware, and culturally sensitive. The case study described here is only one example of what is possible when vulnerable women are given an opportunity through small loans to extricate themselves from the poverty cycle. With a renewed mindset made possible through a loan incentive, the women have broadened their opportunity bases and accessed their own personal resources, demonstrating a surprising resilience and responsiveness to address the health concerns of their children and families. They easily come to accept the need for WaSH in their homes. This emerging hope is predicated, we argue, on the strength and capacities garnered in base community groups—subsets of women who are nurturing, supportive, and accountable to each other. Through this participatory process, SSF came to identify the critical importance of strong female social entrepreneurs. These individual women, in a cultural context of fear and suspicion, mobilized others to take this leap of faith in accepting loans as groups of women and committing to implementing WaSH in their homes. The outcomes of this program evidence more than just enhanced WaSH opportunities, resources, and capacities; gender equity is also a welcome consequence, with a reduction in sexual and gender-based violence in the home. Women now receive greater

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

SSF Microfinance Program Officer Hajat Sarah Matovu disburses loans to women at the Community Development Centre in Lyantonde, Uganda.

respect from their husbands and other community members for what they are seen to be accomplishing in advancing the health and economic well-being of their homes, families, and larger communities.

Rationale for SSF’s Integrated, Participatory Development Model An enduring critical question with respect to “development” assistance still remains largely unanswered: How is it possible to positively modify risk behaviors in social settings experiencing bad governance, entrenched poverty, ravaging infectious disease (e.g., HIV/AIDS), and limited access to safe drinking water and where vulnerable

persons in communities believe that they will never be afforded a productive future? In nearly three decades of working alongside vulnerable communities in sub-Saharan Africa, SSF has confronted this challenging question, and in the process, co-created an approach to development assistance that offers sustainable solutions.4 SSF’s is a story of enablement leading to empowerment—the compelling result of successful partnerships with other NGOs, government, corporate business, traditional and faith leaders, and affected communities—to advance progressive solutions. The participatory development model that emerged is working and needs to be replicated throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world.

There are five guiding principles and core assumptions that underscore SSF’s approach to development: 1. SSF subscribes to the Indigenous African philosophy called mbuntu, meaning we are who we are (our being) because of our presence and accountability to others in community (our belonging).5 Made famous by African leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, mbuntu underscores what we have come to endorse as foundational requirements in advancing authentic development. 2. SSF believes that the platform for sustainable development requires strengthened, secure, and supportive communities, where the concerns voiced by women, men,

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Dr. Don Wagner

Namaddu Scovia uses this drying rack for her dishes and utensils to prevent them from becoming contaminated.

and youth are respectfully heard. As such, authentic development can only build on the struggles, stories, and opportunities experienced in base communities, where trust is earned, established, and eventually legitimized. 3. SSF believes that integrated development programs are comprehensive in nature and ineffectual if simply project-driven or silo-focused. Instead, our Salama for Life programs are synergistically

linked throughout the duration of our program process, which entails conceptualization, implementation, and evaluation. 4. SSF believes that the technical skills needed to achieve sustainable impacts and solutions require effective cross-cultural communication. SSF staff have the ‘know-how’ to bridge differing views, where Indigenous knowledge necessarily merges with scientific evidence. For example, SSF has worked alongside

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traditional healers,6 faith leaders,7 and local mentors in HIV prevention efforts, where the shared capacity to transcend worldviews led to the success of the initial HIV/ AIDS programmatic intervention.3 5. SSF recognizes the essential leadership skills in individuals who mobilize into action reluctant members of their community and who envision better futures in spite of the structural violence and resistance that exists in their current reality.8,9

Incorporating HIV Prevention and WaSH Initiatives The microcredit revolving loan (MCRL) program is SSF’s signature initiative. Impoverished women are given loans through the support and accountability structures of selfformed base communities.10 The money provided by funders is loaned out to the women, who engage in various income-generating projects. In general, these include seasonal crop production; trade and commerce; animal husbandry, fisheries, and poultry; small scale manufacturing; food stalls; and, domestic services. SSF’s effective interest rate is about half of the rates charged by other microfinance institutions in the area. There is a virtually unprecedented 100 percent repayment rate for these loans. The only loans not fully repaid happened due to clients’ death. All savings are owned collectively by all the women borrowers. The loan structure and organization is managed by SSF. SSF Program Officers travel by motorcycle to support the women’s base communities in managing these loans. While in these remote villages, they conduct HIV/AIDS education and provide support for those women who are HIV positive. They encourage them as a group to go for testing and offer hope for more positive futures. For example, Hanifa Namuli has worked for SSF for over 18 years. She is HIV positive and is a model of how to survive in incredibly difficult circumstances. As such, Hanifa was named SSF’s Ambassador of Hope, and her story provides the content for a monograph currently being written on her life, titled When I Came to Understand. She often attends sessions in the remote villages together with members of the MCRL team. All of SSF’s HIV/AIDS interventions are built on a mentoring model that was revitalized at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the mid-90s,

Lyantonde Town Council had the highest incidence and prevalence of HIV.11 SSF’s participatory interventions revitalized the respected traditional institutions of ssengas and kojjas—paternal aunts and uncles who supported their nieces and nephews by providing crucial knowledge on sexual health. SSF’s mentors receive training in HIV/AIDS prevention and double as recipients of loans and proponents of WaSH initiatives in the community. Incorporated within the Finance for Life (MCRL) program, SSF program officers raise awareness of WaSH procedures and organize learning sessions on food preparation and hygiene practices, handwashing, and safe water management. For example, the SSF team instructs women in the building of drying racks, pit latrines, tippy taps (a jerry-can filled with water attached to a tree permitting handwashing after latrine use), and water harvesting. Some of the women in the microfinance program also organized themselves to invest in a water tank where they stored rainwater for domestic use. SSF previously dug three boreholes in the community of Lyantonde Town Council. One borehole, located at the perimeter of the Community Development Center, services 150 families per day. Each 20-liter jerrycan of clean water is sold for less than USD$1.00. SSF also constructed commercial water tanks (between 10,000 and 15,000 liters) at six schools in Lyantonde District and provided handwashing facilities to 35 schools to increase WaSH practices among students. The SSF field team regularly follows up on these WaSH programs to ensure positive behavioral change and efficient water use.

Case Study: Scovia’s Story The following case study follows the story of one woman who practically implemented WaSH initiatives after receiving loans through the MCRL

program. A parallel case study is presented in the “On the Ground” section of this volume in A Voice from the Field. Both women could be considered social entrepreneurs.12 Their stories underscore the importance of recognizing the entrepreneurial and social capacities of rural-based women—women who were originally un-bankable, but when provided with opportunity, demonstrated immense practicality and innovation in responding to the comprehensive health and development needs of their families. Namaddu Scovia (hereafter Scovia) is 38 years old. She is married and has seven children with her husband, Serugo Vincent, who owns a bicycle shop in Lyantonde. Scovia has been a member of Lwamayongo Bakyala Twezimbe group since December 2011. She dropped out of school at an early age to marry Vincent, and they lived a hard life as peasant farmers. Living in a swampy area infested with mosquitoes, they suffered from many diseases due to poor hygienic conditions and having to drink unsafe water, which was shared with cattle from neighboring areas. They lived on a very small piece of land and could not grow enough food for their family. What her husband was earning as a bicycle repairer was not enough to meet the family’s needs. Scovia heard about the microfinance program when she was invited by her local Chairperson to attend a village meeting in July of 2009. At this meeting, SSF staff introduced the microfinance program to community members. Scovia was not among the first five members of this group who received loans, but joined the group after three loan cycles in December 2011. Her base community group has since expanded from five to 11 members, with each woman implementing a different incomegenerating project.

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Richard Ssenyondo

Namaddu Scovia lights her energy-saving stove.

To date, Scovia has received seven loan cycles amounting to USD$1,117.65 (UGX3,800,000). Her first loan cycle started in December 2011, when she received UGX300,000. In December 2015, she received UGX700,000, and her most recent loan in August 2016 provided UGX1,1000,000. She has mainly engaged in farming and rearing goats but also recently set up a retail shop in her home. Additionally, she bought two bulls through these loans. Unfortunately, both bulls died due to an unknown disease. In spite of these hardships, she has saved

USD$40.00 (UGX134,600) that she plans to use to purchase more assets. Scovia informed the SSF team that after only three loan cycles, she has been able to move into a new home: “With the money I have borrowed through the SSF microfinance program, we were able to buy a plot of land and put up a new house. This has helped me to set up a retail shop and get many customers…we have also been able to expand my business of selling bicycle spare parts. I am now able to pay school fees for my children. I eat well, sleep comfortably, and am very happy. However,

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I am still interested in getting more loans to enable me to expand my business…and for my retail shop set-up in our home, which will be an additional income to the money earned by my husband.” Scovia’s husband commented that they were only able to acquire these assets because they have been working together as a family. He explained that they had benefited greatly from the loans, as they were able to buy more pieces of land, saying: “With the SSF loans, we were able to buy two acres of land and planted eucalyptus trees, bought 1.5 acres of additional land and planted a banana plantation. I realized that we had to obtain another business close to home. We discussed it and decided to open a shop in our home. This was all possible due to the dialogue events we attended—events organized by the SSF team in our village where we learned we needed to work as a family if we would progress. These events have not only helped us, but these dialogues have also helped other community members who are not in the micro-credit program. Those other people try to copy what others in the program are doing, in order to be successful and for their families to progress as well.” Scovia went on to say: “We have been able to put up sanitation facilities, like the drying rack where we put our utensils, cups, plates, and other items after washing them such that they are not contaminated. We have pit latrines with covers and have also taught our children the hygienic practices of washing their hands with soap after visiting the latrine…and a tippy tap just outside the latrine with soap, as taught to us by the SSF team. We have even taught our children to use ash to sprinkle it in the latrine as a way of disinfecting the latrine as well as covering the pit after use. We learned all this through the microfinance program. You find our children

encouraging each other to observe this handwashing practice. We have also a garbage pit where we throw the waste. After some time, the wastes are later transferred to our gardens as compost manure. We also have an energy-saving stove. We have learned that we have to boil our water before drinking it and store it in a clean and covered container, unlike before when we would just drink it straight from the jerry-can.” When asked about the advantages of having sanitation facilities, Scovia’s husband responded: “Having a latrine protects the family from getting diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera, unlike when we just defecated anywhere. If you have a latrine with the cover, then you will not get those diseases and will have good hygiene in your home. If you don’t have a pit latrine and get visitors, you can be embarrassed when they have nowhere to go. We try to avoid defecating everywhere to avoid getting diseases and thus avoid spending our small monies on medical bills.” Scovia was asked about health issues and how the microcredit team has assisted her family in making informed decisions. Scovia explained that HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections are two of the topics addressed by the microcredit team during monthly loan repayment meetings. She said this was why the members had requested HCT (HIV Counselling and Testing) outreach during the disbursement of loans, so that they have the opportunity to get tested and know their status. Scovia informed us that SSF had also organized community outreach events in their villages, where they brought government health workers to educate and carry out HCT support services. This was the first time Scovia was tested. She was tested a second time when she had to go to Lyantonde hospital for antenatal services; testing is a requirement for entry. Scovia’s

husband has also been tested once. When asked whether he and his wife had ever been tested together, he laughed and said: “If they test my wife during antenatal care, then I don’t need to test because I can know whether we have the HIV or not when she informs me. I trust my wife and I am also faithful to her in that I always return home every day after work at 8:00 pm.” The team informed the couple about the importance of testing as a couple instead of basing their risk on what one of them says or is told.

them that in such instances, her family seeks another water source on a wealthy man’s land about two kilometers away. The scarcity of water and the distance required in accessing it puts the lives of children and women at risk, especially in the evening hours when they are more vulnerable to rape or attack. Scovia plans to renovate her house and set up a rainwater harvesting tank of about 6,000 liters, so that she can start harvesting water for home use and sell the excess as a way of earning additional income.

Women now receive greater respect from their husbands and other community members for what they are seen to be accomplishing in advancing the health and economic well-being of their homes, families, and larger communities. The SSF team asked Scovia about issues pertaining to sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). She informed them that these were not so common these days due to the dialogue forums organized by SSF where couples were given an opportunity to voice their concerns and suggest ways to overcome communication challenges between husbands and wives. According to her, this was the reason why there are now few cases of SGBV and fights in the home. Despite their achievements, Scovia and her husband still face challenges in accessing clean and safe water. In their village, there is still no bore hole. The closest water source is 1.5 kilometers away. It is not clean or safe, and is shared with animals. This compromised water source also dries up during the prolonged dry season, as evidenced when the SSF team visited the water source and saw that it was very low. Scovia informed

During her final farewell, Scovia said: “I appreciate the good working relations with the SSF team, the mentorship given to us that has enabled us to progress and work as a family unit, and the trainings and dialogue forums that have helped us in planning and organizing our homes, acquire more assets, and most importantly educate our children. I did not get a chance to complete my education, but with the microcredit program in place, I know my children will complete their education. The microcredit program is a program that brings together different aspects of life, like water, sanitation, hygiene, environment protection, HIV/AIDS, STIs, and education of children. Equipping us with new skills has made us work harder than before, and allowed us to make new friends. We have learned the importance of working together. We would not

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have been able to achieve all that we have if we had not been given this opportunity by SSF, which has changed the quality of our lives.”

Final Thoughts Scovia’s case provides an example of how vulnerable and at-risk women have advanced WaSH initiatives in their homes and communities. WaSH programs integrated within the microfinance program can be evaluated as largely successful in light of the economic benefits accrued for members. More research needs to be done to identify the social benefits and impacts on the larger community emerging from these individual cases. These impacts go beyond the economic benefit to the borrowers; in nuanced and subtle ways, the larger community is affected for good. These success stories require more rigorous evaluation protocols to measure the impact and outcome of SSF’s participatory development agenda. Indeed, the SSF staff requires evidence of WaSH behaviors implemented in the loan recipient’s home. Without evidence of a latrine, tippy tap, or drying rack, and the demonstration of efforts to harvest water, a loan would not be given to an un-bankable woman or groups of women in their organized base communities. Introducing WaSH into resourcelimited environments is a challenge. Lyantonde is often listed as being in the “dry corridor,” indicating the location’s propensity for water shortages and famine. Yet Scovia seized an opportunity and self-initiated a practical process to ameliorate her water concerns—without heavy-handed external intervention. Training events alerted her to the need for WaSH to secure the health of her children, but the practical steps to construct WaSH facilities in her home were built through her own determination, capacity, and a fierce willingness to overcome the odds. She mobilized

resources, financial and otherwise, and acted on what she had come to realize is an important, life-saving practice. The loans made it possible for her to advance a variety of incomegenerating activities, but surprisingly, the need to meet the water and hygienic needs of her family appeared to come first. Future research can build upon such cases. As the microfinance program expands to other villages and identifies potential base community groups, baseline measures (qualitative and quantitative) of WaSH conditions in the home, village, and community will be required. Then, after the introduction of SSF’s participatory intervention, WaSH impacts and outcomes should be measured over time. As fluid and resilient as this intervention currently is, it would seem that SSF’s integrated approach to development—mbuntu-based, participatory, and synergistic in addressing a variety of basic needs—demonstrates merit in accomplishing sustainable WaSH solutions. This can occur only in instances where NGOs realize and respect that there are, inherent in the capacity of local communities, certain individuals who embody the leadership skills, courage, and direction to foment creative and innovative changes in their homes and larger communities. The question is, what is it about these innovators and entrepreneurs that garner larger impacts for not only themselves but the larger community? All of the women in SSF’s programs were originally considered un-bankable and impoverished, and yet with the opportunity provided through small loans, many have been able to accomplish much more. As individuals who dared to overcome a fear of change, they demonstrated that they could become accountable agents of progress furthering a WaSH agenda that enhanced the well-being of their families. Sustainable development

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must be intimately linked to the energy mobilized by Indigenous social entrepreneurs. Our role as NGOs is simply to come alongside and provide resources that they do not have access to (e.g., scientific knowledge and best practices), as together, we advance trusting relationships that permit meaningful progress to occur. References 1. Smith, SA, Willms, D & Johnson, NA (eds). Nurtured by Knowledge: Learning to do Participatory-Action Research (The Apex Press and the International Development Research Centre Books, New York, 1997). 2. Wagner, D, Gamble, EN, & Willms, DG. Cautious trust with allies: an ethnographic study of microfinance clients in Uganda. Manuscript (2016). Submitted to the Journal of Business Ethics. 3. Willms, D. Conceptual events: bridging the epistemological divide among stakeholders in Moving Health Sovereignty in Africa: Disease, Governance, Climate Change (eds Kirton, JJ, Cooper, AF, Lisk, F & Besada, H): Ch. 6, 85–96 (Ashgate Publishing Company, Farnham, 2014). 4. Salama SHIELD Foundation [online]. www. salamashield.org. 5. Clarkson, A. Ubuntu in Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship (House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2014). 6. Willms, D et. al. AIDS prevention in the ‘Matare’ and the community: a training strategy for traditional healers in Zimbabwe in Applying Health Social Science: The Best Practice in the Developing World (eds Higginbotham, N, Briceno-Leon, R & Johnson N): 163–182 (ZED Books, London, 2001). 7. Willms, D, Arratia, M & Makondesa, P. Can interfaith research partnerships develop new paradigms for condom use and HIV prevention? The implementation of ‘conceptual events’ in Malawi results in a ‘spiritualized condom.’ Sexually Transmitted Infections 87(7): 611–615 (2011). 8. Burridge, K. Someone, No One: An Essay on Individuality (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1979). 9. Farmer, P. AIDS and Accusations: Haiti and the Geography of Blame (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992). 10. Born, P. Deepening Community: Finding Joy Together in Chaotic Times (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, 2014). 11. Spittal, P, Nakuti, J, Sewankambo, N & Willms, D. We are dying and getting finished! Linking an ethnographic research design to an HIV/AIDS participatory approach in Uganda in Nurtured by Knowledge: Learning to do Participatory-Action Research (eds Smith, S, Willms, D & Johnson, N): 86–110 (The Apex Press and the International Development Research Centre Books, New York, 1997). 12. Martin, RL & Osberg, SR. Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works (Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, 2015).

Stewart, M. (2016). Re-examining Women, Water, and Environmental Change. Solutions 7(6): 93-94. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/re-examining-women-water-and-environmental-change/

Reviews Book Review

Re-examining Women, Water, and Environmental Change by Melanie Stewart REVIEWING A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change edited by Stephanie Buechler and Anne-Marie Hanson, Routledge, 2015

tephanie Buechler and Anne-Marie Hanson’s A Political Ecology of Women, Water and Global Environmental Change conveys the need to alter the traditional discourse surrounding global environmental change, particularly the management of water resources. The book proposes that employing a feminist political ecology (FPE) framework when studying communities dependent on vulnerable water resources can provide a more inclusive and intersectional understanding of the issues and its complexities. The editors broaden the discussion by pushing authors from various theoretical disciplines, ideological perspectives, and societal realms to the forefront. These players recount stories from around the globe that highlight the social and economic challenges faced by women subject to adverse environmental factors. Significant issues such as critical livelihood studies, water management, and water pollution, among others, are given a fresh perspective by highlighting the intersection of gender with water management policies and practices. Bringing to light both the challenges and the successes of women affected by environmental change, the chapters within the book emphasize the importance of looking to spaces of everyday life for sources of knowledge and understanding. More importantly, the book stresses the need to include alternative forms of knowledge, such as Eleanor Hayman’s collaborative chapter with

Mark Wedge/Aan Gooshú and Colleen James/Gooch Tláa on Indigenous storytelling. Buechler and Hanson do an excellent job in creating a space that is open to the voices of women to share their personal experiences and insightful knowledge. Throughout the book, examples of women’s lived experiences are recounted through different scales, such as Patricia Perkins and Patricia Walker’s chapter on different groups of women involved in local and global

socio-geographic factors, particularly social differences that intersect with gender. By shifting the methodological lens from which these challenges are viewed and providing diverse, alternative perspectives, forwarding thinking theories and practices are presented as a framework to develop new solutions to these issues. However, in keeping with FPE’s philosophy, Buechler and Hanson’s book does not try to provide a governing, all-encompassing solution

The chapters within the book emphasize the importance of looking to spaces of everyday life for sources of knowledge and understanding. community engagement programs; different sources, like the audio–visual sources discussed in Citt Williams and Ivan Golovnev’s chapter; and different perspectives, resonated throughout the book with each chapter clearly respecting the voices of those sharing their challenges and triumphs in the face of environmental change. Buechler and Hanson have compiled 12 chapters that illustrate the diverse challenges faced by different individuals, communities, and societies in relation to water resources. The authors highlight that the traditional discourse surrounding these challenges neglect to consider several socio-economic and

to combating climate change. Rather, the book provides a much-needed platform to facilitate a collective dialogue in order to understand the complex social, economic, and environmental challenges being experienced across the globe. This book will be of interest to a wide array of readers; however, those particularly interested in environmental studies, feminist and gender studies, critical theory, and public policy would benefit greatly from reading this book. At its very core, the book promotes an inclusive and fresh approach to research that would benefit academics and professionals alike.

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Reviews Media Reviews Syrian Female Journalists Seek Civil Society by Dominique Bonessi In major western media headlines, we see the stereotypical refugee woman crying, donning a hijab, and holding an infant—the victims of the Syrian civil war. “Syria woman is one that is refugee,” Rula Asad, co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Female Journalists’ Network, told a crowd gathered at the Middle East Institute. “Stereotyping and victimizing women is annoying, especially when other women are the political leaders.” In a time of so much negativity in the media, Asad said the war is an opportunity to improve Syrian civil society. Those at the frontlines fighting for the continuation of Syrian culture and the development of Syrian civil society are female journalists. In the midst of the Syrian civil war and migrant crisis throughout Europe, the need for civil society has never been greater. But the lofty goal of negotiation has been falling on deaf ears. There are over 400,000 dead so far in the six-year-long war. After three peace talks, 12 civilian groups wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon grieving that the talks have offered “neither peace nor protection” to the Syrian people. Female journalists from various organizations hope to fill in the gaps between media and civil society. Founded in 2012, the Syrian Female Journalists’ Network (SFJN) connects roughly 73 female and male journalists in and outside of Syria. The idea was borrowed from German female journalists working to improve gender equality in German media. “Syrian journalists that we train face many challenges in reporting the

Syrian Female Journalists Network

war,” Milia Eidmouni, Asad’s partner and co-founder of SFJN, said. “They have no helmets or vests, and much of their equipment was confiscated by militants trying to censor news.” Asad and Eidmouni took civilian journalists and trained them into professionals. The group’s main objective is to report what is happening in Syria and achieve gender democracy in international reporting on Syrian women. “The biggest issue for civil society in Syria is fear and mistrust,” said Caroline Ayoub, co-founder and project manager of SouriaLi (Syria is Mine) Radio. “Syrians don’t know who they can turn to for information, so we wanted to fill in the gap. That is the responsibility of the media.”

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Ayoub’s three-year-old radio program provides a variety of cultural and political shows from both within and outside of Syria. Ayoub was arrested in 2012 in Damascus for her nonviolent activism against the regime. Currently, the radio broadcast has only three journalists in Syria working under aliases, while the rest of the journalists work from afar via Skype, Google Hangout, and e-mail. One of SouriaLi’s most popular programs was a cooking show covering 30 stories of Syrian cooks from Kurdish, Armenian, and Arab backgrounds and preserving the cultural heritage of areas that can no longer be inhabited. While change lags for civil society in Syria, Ayoub, Asad, and Eidmouni see their efforts as investing in Syria’s future, 50 years from now.

Schuster-Wallace, C. and S. Watt. (2016). Of Religious Tomes and Tippy Taps. Solutions 7(6): 95-97. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/of-religious-tomes-and-tippy-taps/

Solutions in History

Of Religious Tomes and Tippy Taps by Corinne Schuster-Wallace and Susan Watt

Nigel Goodman

Victorian washbasins meet modern sanitation devices at Langtons House in East London, England.

ersonal hygiene is the practice of keeping your body clean, including your hands. Hygiene has aesthetic and moral (purity) dimensions in addition to health dimensions.1 Dating back to biblical times and beyond, societies have emphasized the importance of cleanliness of both people and the environment. Dirt was negatively construed, moving hygiene into the realm of morality.2 These hygiene practices came in the form of rules and laws in religious books,3 for example, for washing bodies, food preparation, and burial practices.4,5 A version of soap (a mixture of tallow and ash) was in use as early as 2300 BC.6 The 19th century heralded the use of disinfectants and antiseptics.7 As early as Roman times, hygiene became a social and cultural event,8 with hot and cold communal baths. The 1850s marked the start of a

sanitation revolution in Great Britain, catalyzed by the “Great Stink”—the smell of a sewage-ridden Thames River flowing past the Houses of Parliament.9 In the mid- to late-19th century, mortality rates fell as Western European and American societies transitioned to higher standards of social development. Improved hygiene is one of the key innovations behind this transition, with baths and laundry facilities being made widely available and frequently utilized. Personal cleanliness was linked to both health and morals. Inroads made were a result of a combination of technical, scientific, public health, social, and political advances.10 Personal hygiene has become a multi-million dollar industry, with soaps for bodies, hair, clothes, dishes, pets, and homes. It is synonymous with “good health, good manners, good rearing, good housekeeping, and

civilization itself.”11 It is estimated that there may be as many as 8,000 personal hygiene products sold in Europe alone.12 Around the world, these soaps and other personal care products are being flushed out into sewers and surface waters. Wastewater treatment processes are not necessarily sufficient to remove these pollutants from the effluent prior to its discharge back into receiving waters, facilitating bioaccumulation in some aquatic animals, and in some crops irrigated with recycled wastewater.13 Another potential adverse health effect is summarized by the “hygiene hypothesis,” which which suggests that, over time, decreased exposure to certain pathogens has had negative impacts on our immune responses, presumably increasing susceptibility to some pathogens. However, this is not so much a case of “too much hygiene,” as it is an emphasis on the importance of “good hygiene practice.”14 On the other hand, given the widespread development of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens (evolving resistance to antibiotics used to treat infections), there is a very real concern that excessive use of antibacterial products in healthy households may contribute to the development of resistant strains.15 However, over time, and with the drastic decreases in mortality rates associated with infectious diseases experienced in high income countries, complacency has led to the importance of hygiene for health being forgotten by many. The fact that historical rules and laws were likely borne out the negative consequences of not taking these actions on people’s health, such as pneumonia, scabies, and skin and eye infections, is no longer front of mind.16 Attention was drawn back to hygiene practices in 2010, when hygiene was referred to as one of the forgotten pillars of public health,17 answering a call for “renewal of the holistic approach

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Solutions in History

Corinne Schuster-Wallace

“Tippy taps” in Kampala, Uganda: a frame constructed from branches is used to suspend a plastic bottle with a hole on top. The bottle is filled with water that heats up in the sun. Stepping on the lower branch upends the bottle, and allows the water to flow out. Soap hangs on a string next to the bottle protected by a container that can be slid up the rope to access the soap.

of hygiene and public health [as] both urgent and necessary.”18 This is true both in the context of low and middle income countries, where infant and child mortality rates are still excessively high, with a large proportion due to preventable infectious diseases, and more globally, where drivers of environmental change are resulting in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases regardless of the level of national development. Today, hygiene, and hand hygiene in particular, is still not practiced to the extent necessary, and at times, critically necessary, in order to protect health. Hand hygiene is defined here as a preventive action and barrier to

waterborne and foodborne infectious diseases—breaking the fecal-oral transmission cycle, as well as the broader pathogen transmission cycle. Hand hygiene is critical for infection control in the home, in schools, and in health care facilities. Handwashing with soap has been linked to significant reductions in diarrhea incidence rates.19,20 Its role in acute infection control has been underscored in recent years by influenza epidemics and the Ebola pandemic, as well as its role in food contamination. So, why aren’t people washing their hands? Even in high income country settings, hand hygiene adherence in acute-care hospitals has been

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demonstrated to average 30 percent.21 Globally, fundamental reasons for poor hand hygiene practices are inextricably linked to poor access to sufficient volumes of water of adequate quality, and to poor sanitation. Water, sanitation, and soap are essential partners to hand hygiene. While options other than soap and water exist, such as alcohol rubs, these have been demonstrated to be less effective than soap and water for some pathogens.22 While the Millennium Development Goals recognized the importance of drinking water and sanitation access in homes, institutions, such as schools and healthcare facilities, as well as hygiene practices, were not considered. These have been addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals, with a phased approach to universal access to water and sanitation that includes hygiene practices. However, barriers to sustained effective handwashing in healthcare facilities appear to be similar the world over. High patient loads often leave staff with insufficient time to practice adequate hand hygiene, staff are sometimes confused as to what constitutes proper hand hygiene, and even in high income countries, there are complaints of inadequate supplies for proper hand hygiene.23,24 The lack of adequate facilities for practicing hand hygiene and proper sanitation in healthcare facilities is particularly concerning. Notwithstanding the lack of data on water and sanitation status in healthcare facilities, or the difficulties in assessing who is consistently practicing proper hand hygiene, several studies indicate the likely magnitude of the problem. Across 54 low and middle income countries, almost two in five healthcare facilities do not have adequate water supplies, one in five do not have adequate toilet facilities, and one third do not have soap and water

Solutions in History for practicing hand hygiene.25 Given that many people in healthcare facilities are already health-compromised, these data represent preventable risks for additional morbidity and mortality, including nosocomial (hospitalacquired) infections. Maternal and newborn health outcomes in particular are severely compromised by poor hygiene practices, especially in the case of caesarian sections.26 At the household level, handwashing with soap is practiced by less than 50 percent of the population (based on data from 38 Sub Saharan Africa countries).27 The burden of poor hygiene facilities falls on the immunocompromised (e.g., people living with HIV/AIDS), and on women and girls. Gastrointestinal illness contracted through poor hygiene practices is, quite literally, a death sentence for the immunocompromised individual. An inability to practice adequate menstrual hygiene can leave women and girls embarrassed and socially stigmatized and prevent girls from attending school each month.28 As identified in a recent research initiative undertaken by the authors, in the case of pregnant women, an inability to clean themselves or their clothes can actually result in women missing prenatal appointments. In summary, hygiene may be as old as the ancient civilizations, but it has not been given the attention it deserves. Hand hygiene is particularly essential to maintaining, improving, and preventing negative impacts of health in the most vulnerable. In order to realize the benefits of this historic solution, it is important to reinforce positive hygiene knowledge and attitudes, and to habituate good hygiene practices while ensuring the necessary physical elements (water and soap, or alternatives) are available. Campaigns such as Global Handwashing Day (October 15), emotional drivers, and collective action

support the former,29 while handwashing equipment can be works of art, such as Victorian porcelain bowls and jugs, or a simple, “tippy tap” made out of a couple of pieces of wood, a plastic bottle, and some soap.

hygiene hypothesis and home hygiene. Clinical & Experimental Allergy 36(4): 402–425 (2006). 15. Levy, SB. Antibacterial household products: cause for concern. Emerging Infectious Diseases 7(3): 512 (2001). 16. Johansson, EW, Wardlaw, T, Binkin, N, Brocklehurst, C & Dooley, T. Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done. UNICEF (2009). 17. Bartram, J & Cairncross, S. Hygiene, sanitation, and water: forgotten foundations of health. PLoS

References 1. Smith, V. Clean: a history of personal hygiene and purity (Oxford University Press, 2007). 2. Curtis, VA. Dirt, disgust and disease: a natural history of hygiene. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61(8): 660–664 (2007). 3. Chamberlain, GRLP. Troubled Waters: Religion, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York, 2007). 4. Allegranzi, B & Pittet, D. Role of hand hygiene in healthcare-associated infection prevention. Journal of Hospital Infection 73(4): 305–315 (2009). 5. Curtis, VA, Danquah, LO & Aunger, RV. Planned, motivated and habitual hygiene behaviour: an eleven country review. Health Education Research 24(4): 655–673 (2009). 6. Myers, D. Surfactant Science and Technology (John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2005). 7. Greene, VW. Personal hygiene and life expectancy improvements since 1850: Historic and epidemiologic associations. American Journal of Infection Control 29(4): 203–206 (2001). 8. Kosso, C & Scott, A (eds.). The Nature and Function of Water, Baths, Bathing, and Hygiene From Antiquity Through The Renaissance (Brill, Boston, 2009). 9. Benidickson, J. Why did people ever think it was ok to dump waste in water? In UNU-INWEH. 2010. Sanitation as a Key to Global Health: Voices from the Field. United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health [online] (2009). http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2013/05/2010_Sanitation_PolicyBrief.pdf. 10. Greene, VW. Personal hygiene and life expectancy improvements since 1850: Historic and epidemiologic associations. American Journal of Infection Control 29(4): 203–206 (2001). 11. Aiello, AE, Larson, EL & Sedlak, R. Hidden heroes of the health revolution Sanitation and personal hygiene. American Journal of Infection Control 36(10): S128– S151 (2008). 12. Ellis, JB. Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in urban receiving waters. Environmental Pollution 144(1): 184–189 (2006). 13. Wu, C, Spongberg, AL, Witter, JD, Fang, M & Czajkowski, KP. Uptake of pharmaceutical and personal care products by soybean plants from soils applied with biosolids and irrigated with contaminated water. Environmental Science & Technology 44(16): 6157–6161 (2010). 14. Bloomfield, SF, Stanwell-Smith, R, Crevel, RWR & Pickup, J. Too clean, or not too clean: the

Medicine 7(11): e1000367 (2010). 18. Exner, M, Hartemann, P & Kistemann, T. Hygiene and health—the need for a holistic approach. American Journal of Infection Control 29(4): 228–231 (2001). 19. Curtis, V & Cairncross, S. Effect of washing hands with soap on diarrhoea risk in the community: a systematic review. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 3(5): 275–281 (2003). 20. Luby, SP et al. Effect of intensive handwashing promotion on childhood diarrhea in high-risk communities in Pakistan: a randomized controlled trial. Jama 291(21): 2547–2554 (2004). 21. Mertz, D et al. Adherence to hand hygiene and risk factors for poor adherence in 13 Ontario acute care hospitals. American Journal of Infection Control 39(8): 693–696 (2011). 22. Oughton, MT, Loo, VG, Dendukuri, N, Fenn, S & Libman, MD. Hand hygiene with soap and water is superior to alcohol rub and antiseptic wipes for removal of Clostridium difficile. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 30(10): 939–944 (2009). 23. Jang, TH et al. Focus group study of hand hygiene practice among healthcare workers in a teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 31(02): 144–150 (2010). 24. Holmen, IC et al. Improving Hand Hygiene Practices in a Rural Hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology 1–6 (2016). 25. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Health Care Facilities: status in low- and middle-income countries and way forward. WHO and UNICEF [online] (2015). http://apps.who.int/iris/ bitstream/10665/154588/1/9789241508476_eng. pdf?ua=1. 26. Schuster-Wallace, CJ & Watt, S. Women and the Water-Health Nexus. In: Women’s Health in the Majority World (eds. Chamberlain Froese, J & Elit, L) (Nova Sciences Publishers, Hauppauge, New York, 2015). 27. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment. WHO and UNICEF [online] (2015). http://www.wssinfo.org/fileadmin/ user_upload/resources/JMP-Update-report-2015_ English.pdf. 28. Sommer, M & Sahin, M. Overcoming the taboo: advancing the global agenda for menstrual hygiene management for schoolgirls. American Journal of Public Health 103(9): 1556–1559 (2013). 29. McMichael, C & Robinson, P. Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from midwestern Nepal. Social Science & Medicine (August 2016).

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Willms, D.G., R. Kaware, and H.S. Matovu. (2016). A Voice from the Field: Margaret Nakiguli’s Story. Solutions 7(6): 98-103. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/a-voice-from-the-field-margaret-nakigulis-story/

On The Ground

A Voice from the Field: Margaret Nakiguli’s Story by Dennis G. Willms, Rose Kawere, and Hajat Sarah Matovu

Dr. Don Wagner

Margaret in front of her second water storage tank.

y name is Nakiguli Margaret, and my story is now filled with hope. While previously very poor, I was able to come out of poverty, and am now a respected and valued member of my community. Distrust, suspicion, and fear are often socially experienced in my village in southwestern Uganda. For me to have overcome these obstacles—especially the fatalism that comes with poverty—still surprises me. It makes me wonder what happened to make my situation improve.

I live in what could be considered a typical rural community. When you enter my home village, you see scattered homesteads separated by banana plantations and fruit trees (papaya, mango, jackfruit, and avocado), with each dwelling up to a mile apart in distance. There are children everywhere—scattering like chickens, making noise, and being mischievous. Older men are under trees conversing, trying to make sense of their situation, and watching the social interactions of the young and old around them. Everyone sees and knows you.

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Like most people in this village and community, I am a peasant farmer, selling my produce (fruits and vegetables) at my home. On rare occasions, I take my produce to town, or sell on the roadside of the highway that connects Kampala with Mbarara, and which continues to Rwanda. I live about eight kilometers from Lyantonde Town Center, which makes it difficult to transport my produce to the market. Life in the village has always been extremely difficult. I have worried mostly about my children, but I also agonized about my own personal

On The Ground safety, health, and security. Would I get infected with HIV/AIDS? Would my children be able to go to school? Would my husband treat me with respect and not abuse me? Would I be able to fetch water on my own from a distant borehole when my children are grown up and living far away? And, when my young daughters were at home helping me, I worried that they would be raped and defiled while looking for water late at night. Water and firewood were always scarce, and we constantly struggled with how to solve these problems of satisfying simple, basic needs. Our homes are normally constructed from mud and wattle, with thatched roofs that leak, and poor ventilation made worse by fires in the cooking rooms nearby. While my life was not easy, I have been able to overcome many challenges through the support of the Salama SHIELD Foundation (SSF). This is how it happened for me, and the other women in our group. I am currently a member of the Kyakakala Kyaterekera women’s group in the Lyantonde District. SSF has had a long history of involvement in our communities, beginning in 2009. Originally, they concentrated on revitalizing a mentorship program to educate and support us on matters pertaining to HIV/AIDS risk. Then, they realized that women like us were most at risk since we had no choices in sexual risk negotiation (e.g., insisting on a condom with a risky partner), and because we were poor. It was then that they addressed the poverty issue by providing us with loans so that we could make choices and have more control of our lives. Let’s sit under the shade of this mango tree I planted, and let me tell you a bit more about myself. I am 49 now, with no formal education (having never finished primary school, because I was scared of being caned at school), or any job history.

In October 1983, I got married to my older sister’s husband. My older sister had become exhausted and weak, and could no longer perform most duties for her aging husband. He wanted to marry another wife. My sister told him that instead of marrying someone she did not know, someone who would mistreat her as the first wife, that she would find a new wife for him. She decided to bring me, her younger sister, to marry him as a second wife. I was 17 at the time. He was about 60. I produced ten children with my husband. Sadly, he passed away three years ago. Of the ten children I produced with him, four children passed away due to maternal complications. Currently, I have four children, all girls, staying at home, with three of them in school. My two other children, both boys, left home after going for vocational skills training, and are now motorcycle mechanics working in another district. One of the boys is now married with his own family. One of the girls has completed the Primary School Leaving Examination this year; another girl is in Primary Five; another, aged six, is in Primary One; while another one, aged 14, is intellectually challenged, and not in school. We never had much money in the house, and little time to work to make money beyond just staying alive. That is why the loan program was so important. I first heard about the microcredit revolving loan (MCRL) program in 2009, when SSF conducted community meetings in my village. We were informed about the microcredit process, and the requirements for selecting women in the community who would be beneficiaries. I was told about how the process worked and became convinced of the benefits. Of course, I had to first inform my husband about the idea, and surprisingly, he agreed. Together with the other women in the group,

the SSF team educated us about the program and the interest we would have to pay. On hearing of these conditions, my husband gave me permission to join the group. We were then trained in the identification of possible income generating activities, project management, group dynamics, sanitation, savings, and how to protect the environment. After the training, I talked to my husband about our biggest challenge. The house we were living in was in a very bad condition. “What if I use part of the loan in constructing a new house for the family?” I asked him. He agreed. And so, during the first loan cycle, I borrowed 300,000 Ugandan shillings (approximately USD$88), which I used for buying iron sheets. I also sold a cow for 500,000 shillings (USD$147) to add to the iron sheet materials I had purchased to start construction. I was able to pay back the loan since my husband was understanding; I would contribute half, and he, the other half. You see, I had created a small banana plantation, which provided revenue to pay back the loan. And, since my husband was a casual laborer, and supportive, he would bring his wages to assist me in paying back the loan. Most husbands are not like that.

Community Work Through the loan program, I have been able to develop money-making schemes. Being a peasant farmer, I rear animals like cows, goats, and pigs. I then sell them to earn an income. For example, during the sixth loan cycle, I was also able to buy a calf at 300,000 shillings (USD$88), which I reared for one year. If I were to sell it now, I would earn over three times that. I am also a seasonal crop grower and grow maize, beans, ground-nuts, cassava, bananas, and other fruits (avocado, jackfruit, and mangoes). I also have a coffee plantation.

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On The Ground

Dr. Don Wagner

The lined interior of one of the water tanks.

What’s more, the loan program has helped bring together the women of my community to find ways to work together. Our group of women—my friends and neighbors who intentionally organized as a group to receive loans from SSF— conduct monthly group meetings. During these meetings, we reflect and talk about the benefits of embarking on different projects, and also discuss how we will assist each other during the planting and harvesting season. It gets very practical and supportive. What we do is work in one member’s garden one day, and the next day, we go to someone else’s garden. In this way, we are able to support each

other, especially during the rainy season when there is a lot of work in the gardens. Casual laborers are scarce and expensive. We talk about everything of importance to our lives personally, and our obligations in the community, as well as gender and inter-faith issues.

Clean Water One result of thinking about our community as a whole is that we have solved our clean water crisis. In our village, we formed a sanitation group with the aim of providing every village member, whether a member of the loan program or not, with basic sanitation and hygiene

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facilities. The only condition was that every village member must gather the raw materials for the construction of the washing facilities for their home. These facilities included a kitchen, washroom, drying rack, or garbage pit. Once the materials were assembled, the village would install them. This project was started at a time when SSF also introduced energy saving stoves project. I am happy to report that now, in most homes, many members have pit latrines, better washrooms, drying racks, tippy taps, and garbage pits. This has helped us in reducing the spread of diseases due to unhygienic practices. Our village has experienced water shortages for many years. Lyantonde

On The Ground

Dr. Don Wagner

Lisa Larmon, Hajat Sarah Matovu Nakalembe of SSF, and Margaret in front of Margaret’s first water tank. Water flows into the tank from the roof of Margaret’s home via the trough in the top left corner of the photo.

District is in “the dry corridor.” As a consequence, my village experiences long dry spells, with unsafe and limited water sources. Most of the time, the burden of fetching water falls on women like me, and young girls. This is a taxing challenge. It becomes even more so when you are a widow. For example, in my village there is only one borehole, which has been in existence for the last ten years. Most of the time it breaks down and it takes a lot of time to repair. The problem for me is that the borehole is about one kilometer away from my home. It also produces salty water, which most of my neighbors do

not like for drinking. In this situation, I used to access limited water at valley dams. Yet during the long dry spells, the boreholes dry up and the owners do not allow us to collect more water from these sources. In the past, we used to collect water from dug up wells close by, but when the owners sold the land, we were chased away. The new owners refused to let us collect water, especially during the drought season. When this happened, my children and I would walk four kilometers to collect water from an adjacent town. It could take me almost half a day to collect water and get back home. In our area, however,

there was one rich man who had a vehicle, and whenever he would take his truck to collect water from the dam for his animals, my neighbors and I would also load our jerry cans, and in that way, be able to get water. Unfortunately, this man died ten years ago. It was at this time that I felt that I needed a water harvesting facility that would enable me to access clean water without having to travel long distances. “What would prevent me from constructing a water harvesting facility?” I asked. “One like the one built by the local Chairperson?” Having lost my husband, and with my

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On The Ground children in jobs and at school, I soon came to the realization that I might be able to turn a water harvesting project into an income generating activity to earn a living as well. How did I come up with this idea? Remember the time when I told you that one day a gentleman from a district in Western Uganda visited me and informed me that the water problem we had was like the one he had in his village? It too, was located in a “hilly place.” He informed me that he had come up with a strategy of digging a pit, and lining the pit with polythene in order to harvest rainwater. He had first set it up for the local area Chairperson at the place where community members used to access clean water. And so, I eventually approached the Chairperson and asked him how much it could cost. He made calculations for me, and it amounted to about 700,000 shillings, or USD$200, which I did not have at that time.

Making Money After about two years reflecting on this opportunity, and knowing that I now was able to get a loan from SSF, I applied for my sixth loan. With this money, I started constructing the water facility as my very own unique, income generating project. I hired young people from the area to dig the pit, construct it with bricks, and then line it with polythene. I also increased the measurements used in making the Chairperson’s water facility, in order to have a facility with a larger capacity. To avoid harm from insects, especially cockroaches that could damage the polythene and contaminate the water, I lined the pit with polythene and then, again, used a harder polythene as a second lining. The first water harvesting facility I built measured eight feet down, 12 feet long, and six feet wide. I use a long stick with a small jerry can tied onto it to collect the water from the facility.

During the rainy season, I do not get many customers, but during the dry season, I get many customers and sell one jerry can at 500 shillings (USD$0.20). During severe periods of drought, I am forced to send people away when the water has been reduced. I try to avoid having to empty the tank completely. During the first rainy season, I was able to earn 150,000 shillings (USD$4.40), and I was also able to contribute about 50 jerry cans for my family to serve during the funeral of my grandson. This gift to the community and extended family has minimized their envy of me, and made me a more respected leader in the community, as someone who encourages development.1 Having learned that I could also earn an income from the water project, I soon realized I could build a second facility. During the eighth loan cycle, having borrowed 600,000 shillings (USD$176), I decided to construct a second water harvesting facility. This one measures five feet down, five feet long, and four feet wide. However, this second water facility is for my own consumption. When the water is reduced in the facility, I put down a ladder and my daughter climbs in, takes out all the water and cleans the tank. Thereafter, she dries it up with a piece of cloth to make it completely dry. Then, she pours in water so that insects do not come in to destroy the polythene lining the pit. It has been a huge success. Many people in my village and community have come to me for information about how I was able to construct the water tanks. They ask me: “What are the costs for construction? How do you protect and maintain the polythene so that it is not destroyed by insects?” They wonder how I was able to accomplish this as a widow.

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As I am telling you now, I laughingly inform them that I am a determined woman who does not go after men for support because I know my supporter is Salama SHIELD Foundation who was able to educate, sensitize, and empower me, and which enabled me to start such a project. And so, I am able to share my experiences with other community members, as I encourage them to access clean and safe water. When I ask myself why other women have not set up such facilities, I realize that most women are fearful and not as strong-willed as I was. You see, I am a determined person, who has no fear to engage in any loan project. Once you realize you want something, then you have to go for it, and surely, you will get it, with God’s blessing. When I wanted the water harvesting facility, I realized I could do it, just as the Chairperson had done it. And then, I applied for a loan, bought the necessary materials, and there I had my water harvesting facility. All of this has saved me time to engage in other projects, and participate in social gatherings. Even my animals, cows, goats, and pigs have also been able to get clean water. I am still encouraging other group members to combine resources and support construction of water harvesting facilities for everyone in the group. If they are in a group, they can convince a member who wants the facility to contribute at least 100,000 shillings for the polythene. If they are together in such endeavors, they would be able to have more members, especially among low income earners having water facilities, and this would ease their water challenges. The need is great. There are very few clean and safe water sources and rainwater harvesting facilities in my district. There are currently only two members in the whole village who have constructed

On The Ground these facilities; the one for the Chairperson is no longer functional. But, as I said, many women are afraid of investing in business for fear of losing money, yet they have the responsibility of educating their children and taking care of their homes, especially when they are the sole bread-earners. That is why I am humbly requesting that SSF provides more sensitization to community members on project identification, management, savings, and entrepreneurship. If this were offered, members would be provided with more information on alternative investment options. They could invest in different income generating activities, such as fish farming, and not merely agro-farming. I am also requesting that more sensitization and monitoring be done among groups for WaSH promotion as a way of securing healthy behaviors, and the prevention of diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera. If it were not for SSF, I do not know how I could have managed, especially during this time when I am alone, having lost my husband. I would not have been able to educate my children, but now all my children are in school. Now, I have a good house and clean and safe water. I have achieved all of this because of the MCRL program.

Future Plans One day, my brother visited me, and was amazed by my water facility. He asked me about my plans and encouraged me to invest in fish farming. He informed me what was required, like buying poles and polythene, like that which I had used in collecting the water in my facility. This was all that was required for a fishpond, which I would put in the shade to protect from preying birds. I was amazed by this idea, but I did not know where I could buy the fish,

Dr. Don Wagner

Margaret demonstrates how she retrieves water from her water tank using a long pole with a jerry can tied to the end. Hajat Sarah Matovu Nakalembe of SSF looks on.

and did not have enough knowledge of what the fish feed on, their diseases, and other information. In my area, there is no one who has done it. Maybe this will be my next step—after all, it pays to be ambitious.

References 1. Wagner, D, Gamble, E & Willms, D. Cautious trust with allies: an ethnographic study amongst microfinance clients in Uganda. Paper submitted to the Journal of International Business Studies manuscript number JIBS-6478-2016-08-OM (2016).

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Louisiana Bayous: Invasive Plant Collection Routes {Manchac Swamp, Atchafalaya Basin, Vermillion Bay} 2012 Pulp Painting Series: Handmade Paper of Water Hyacinth, Alligator Weed, and Abaca 30’ x 8’ (15 Individual Panels 19” x 8’) From the Exhibition Eight Thousand Daughters Woven Into Bayou Braids Louisiana’s bayous are captivating and majestically unique, abounding with biologically diverse ecosystems precariously enduring the challenging impacts of humans and invasive species of plants and animals. There are over four hundred bayous braided across the state. Over the course of one year, Megan Singleton spent nearly every weekend investigating this aquatic landscape by canoe, deciphering the differences between native and invasive flora and fauna. Removing invasive plants, she utilized them as material in the studio to make handmade paper, drawing attention to ecological concerns. This pulp painting series is a collection of drawings created from alligator weed and water hyacinth fibers that document the bayous she canoed, gathering materials and research. They visually and physically embody a sense of place, drawn with a pulp slurry of plant material and referencing satellite imagery of the bayous. This work explores the destructive beauty and materiality of invasive aquatic plants found in Southern Louisiana’s Manchac Swamp and Atchafalaya Basin.