Africa, Women and Water: a Gender Disparity

A study by the International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC) concluded that the full participation of women in water and sanitation projects led them to be more sustainable and successful ( IRC, 1998 ).  The Becheve Women In 1999, the Nigerian Conservation Fund established a Watershed Management Project on the Obudu plateau. The local Becheve women were elected to be on the management committee, subsequently involving them in the creation and maintenance of a water reservoir. As a result, time collecting water was reduced, increasing the time available for both girls and women to attend school. A 45% reduction in cases of diarrhoea was observed and the Becheve women were also able to resolve a conflict between the Fulani tribesmen over access to water, granting them their fair share ( UN, 2006 ). Empowering and including women in decision-making is crucial as this enables the key issue of gender to be integrated into water policies and programmes.  Women in Politics In 2005,

 ' The right to water entitles everyone to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic us e ' ( UN, 2018 )   ‘ When water is scarce, polluted, or unaffordable, women suffer most acutely ’  ( Sidhu et al, 2003 ).  Water privatisation exacerbates the existing gender inequalities which dictate that women and girls are responsible for supplying water to their households. Thus, women have disproportionately experienced the negative effects of water privatization including large price increases, cut-offs, poor quality and health and sanitation risks ( Sidhu et al, 2003 ). Women and girls are disproportionately responsible for collecting water. In Sub-Saharan Africa, they spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water, equivalent to a year’s worth of labour by the entire French workforce ( UN, 2014 ). This time-consuming task often leads to girls dropping out of school and is amplified by the increasing numbers o

Representations of Africa Wainaina’s essay addresses how Africa is habitually depicted in the popular media ( Wainaina, 2005 ). His use of satire is particularly effective as it emphasizes the incorrect and ignorant way in which ideas and information around Africa are represented. These portrayals often characterise Africa as uncivilised and corrupt, rife with starvation and as one country, even though it is the most genetically diverse continent in the world ( Spain, 2009 ).  Taken from  https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/ His essay also gives rise to an important issue concerning performative allyship. ‘An ally is someone from a nonmarginalized group who uses their privilege to advocate for a marginalized group’. Whereas performative allyship is when someone acts like an ally in a way that ‘isn’t helpful or that actively harms the group’( Phillips, 2020 ).This often involves something called ‘virtue signalling’ whereby people express their outrage on an issue to demonstra