Gender
Bias

The burden on women and girls

Worldwide, women and girls bear far more than their fair share of the costs of the water and sanitation crisis. In many places, culture dictates that women and girls take care of the household; so it is their responsibility to find and fetchwater for their families. For girls, the lack of clean water and sanitation facilities close to home turns into lost opportunities to go to school, learn marketable skills, and fully participate in their communities.

Lost Time, Lost Futures

It’s a pretty simple problem: when women and girls have to collect and carry water, or walk long distances to find somewhere to go to the bathroom, they lose time that could be spent on other things. Like going to school. Or playing with their children. Or working.

The links are clear. “Of course I wish I were in school,”explains Yeni, a ten year old in El Alto, Bolivia. “But how can I? My mother needs me to get water, and the standpipe here is only open from 10-12. You have to get in line early because so many people come here.”

The closer girls live to a water source, the more often they attend school. In Tanzania, when girls live within 15 minutes from a water source, their school attendance is 12 per cent higher.

Fetching water isn’t the only barrier for female education; for those lucky enough to get to school, inadequate or

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nonexistent bathroom facilities often send them right home again. Many parents, concerned about the lack of hygiene, safety and privacy in school latrines, withdraw their daughters once they reach puberty. In Bangladesh, after a UNICEF program improved school sanitation facilities, the number of girls attending school rose by 11 per cent.

When women and girls have access to clean water and sanitation, the benefits are long lasting. Educated women are better able to take part in decision making in their households, communities and countries. Educated girls tend to marry and have children later, and their families are smaller and healthier than those of uneducated mothers. It’s clear that if we make water and sanitation provision a prioraty in the developing world,we willmake great progress towards meeting the third Millenium Development Goal: “promote gender equality and empower women.”