News from Environment Team
From Co-Chairs: Ann van Oorshoot (AWC the Hague)& Kris Coluro-Smith (AWC London)
This month the Environment Team looks at how water is related to women's issues and we make compelling points for the importance of water as a TARGET issue.
- Back To School...most children have imagined the first day back to school for weeks, but not all of them have the same expectations or realizations. Millions of children around the world - arrive in their classroom quite late in the morning. These children - usually girls - are dirty, they are hot and tired, and they are hungry. These children struggle to focus on their lessons. The source of this crisis is...a growing, universal lack of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Globally, women and girls spend an average of three hours each day collecting the water needed by their family, which often leaves little time for a "non-essential" such as school. Keeping girls in school is of vital importance to our well being since girls who attend school have an increased knowledge of nutrition and basic health care. As girls mature, this translates into better maternal care and a decrease in pregnancy-related trauma to their children. While water issues are inexorably related to the opportunities girls and women have to be educated, they are also a cause of their gender inequality.
- In water issues, women...lack a public voice. Water gathering teaches women essential skills about hygiene, water hazards and water management, but they are not consulted in decision making. Women understand that their families need safe, clean water, but their concerns are often ignored.
- In water issues, women...face serious health risks. Gather water can be dangerous, especially to women who are ill or pregnant. Women risk injury from the heavy burden, drowning and attack. In some areas, women put themselves in danger by getting too far away from a village because of the need to gather water and firewood.
- In water issues, women. . . are denied empowerment. A study of women in four different countries found that when they have a well close to home, they have better self-esteem, are harassed less and their daughters attend schools more regularly. Women and girls who do not need to spend ninety percent of their time gathering the family's most precious resource can spend more time learning, growing and developing.
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