#1 Introduction: why water and gender in Africa?

Welcome to my water and gender in Africa blog! 

Over the next couple of months I will be discussing some of the key elements of 'water and gender' in the context of Africa. I look forward to exploring specific sub-themes and making links between them throughout the course of this blog- and I hope you find some interest in my blogging journey, too!

Water and gender - what does that mean?

When I first heard about water and gender as a topic, it took me a moment to realise the potential relationship between two seemingly unrelated themes. However, it is important for us to understand this relationship as it is significantly embedded in the way society functions - the good and the bad!

Globally, the responsibility to search for and collect water falls on women in 80% of households that don't have direct access to a water source. Additionally, women and girls spend 200 million hours per day collecting water across the globe. When compared to men, it is shocking how many women in the world dedicate disproportionate amounts of time trying to get water which isn't even safe a lot of the time and, put briefly, that is why this is a gender issue (see Figure 1).

           Figure 1: Video "WaterAid Explains: What has water got to do with gender equality?" 

Why Africa?

You may be wondering why I have chosen to focus on Africa throughout my blog. The statistics mentioned above briefly illustrate a global problem of safe water access that intersects with gender inequalities, however there is significant spatial variation in them. It may sound obvious, but these issues are more common in lower-income countries than in higher-income countries, and within this division, African countries (particularly sub-Saharan) see a concentration of water and gender inequalities (see Figure 2). 

Figure 2: Map showing global progress towards the Millennium Development Goal of access to safe sanitation 

The graph below is striking because of the very clear jump in not only the percentage of households with water on premises, but the percentage of women and girls that are responsible for collecting water across the several regions (see Figure 3). The graph may be over a decade old, but the issues prevail. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, women and girls collectively spend 40 billion hours per year collecting water! As a key region where disparities in water and gender are concentrated, my blog will focus on African case studies to address the topic where its implications are worst. 

Figure 3: Graph showing distribution of households by person responsible for water collection, by region 2005-2007 

Considerations on writing about Africa

I recently read Binyavanga Wainaina's article titled 'How to Write About Africa' and it was a necessary reminder of some of the prejudices about Africa as a continent that can be seen in popular media, in academia and in our own thoughts, which I have been guilty of, too. Wainaina's satirical piece calls society out for its assumptions; these racialised stereotypes and generalisations are part of the problem that sustains and even exacerbates unequal power relations between higher-income and lower-income countries. Throughout my blogging, I will be careful not to make sweeping generalisations about Africa, and will instead focus on particular case studies and contexts in different countries and regions.

So this is the end of my first post! In the next few weeks I hope to address some of the key issues relating to water and gender in Africa while acknowledging the nuanced realities of these issues for the women that experience them. See you soon!