UNDP Report 2006 – 177 Countries – Women Spend 40 Billion Hours Per Year On Water Collection

 

 

Women Spend 40 Billion Hours Annually On Water Collection, UN
Report Says

The New Times (Kigali)
November 16,
2006 

By Charles Kazooba
Kampala

A United Nations survey carried out in 177 countries has revealed that women
collecting water spend an estimated 40 billion hours. The period is equivalent
to a year’s labour for the entire workforce in France.

The world survey conducted in 177 countries (both developed and developing)
specifically shows that in Mozambique, rural Senegal and Eastern Uganda, women
spend 15 to 17 hours a week collecting water.

The UNDP 2006 Human Development Report states that the time wasted on
collecting water from distant points has incapacitated women’s efforts to engage
in more relevant activities including child care and productive work.

As an implication, “the time spent on collecting water reinforces
time-poverty, disempowers women and lowers income.” The survey further suggests
that collecting water exacerbates gender inequality and has derailed women from
income generating activities in addition to undermining human dignity.

“Social and cultural norms influence the household division of labour. In
developing countries, looking after children, caring for the sick and elderly,
preparing food and collecting water and firewood are tasks dominated by women.
Norms in this case translate into unequal working hours between men and women:
time surveys in Benin, Madagascar, Mauritius and South Africa point to
differences ranging from five to seven hours,” the report says.

“Time-poverty also contributes to income poverty. It reduces the time
available for participation in income generation, limits the scope for women to
take advantage of market opportunities and impedes their ability to expand
capabilities and skills, reducing future economic returns,” the survey adjoined.

About 1.1 billion people in the developing world do not have access to
minimal amount of clean water. Coverage is lowest are lowest in Sub-Saharan
African. Although most governments in developing countries have strategised to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the report says; “Even if the
targets are achieved, there will still be more than 800million people without
clean water,” implying that women would still be burdened with walking long
distances to collect water.

“It is not uncommon for women to walk more than 10 kilometres during the dry
season. Research in eastern Uganda found households spending on average 660
hours a year collecting water. This represents two full months of labour with
the attendant opportunity costs for education, income generation and female
leisure time,” the report, released last week, partly reads. In India, according
to research done by Self Employed Women’s Association, it is estimated that
reducing time spent on water collection to one hour a day would enable women to
earn an additional US$100 a year. “But it was not only the loss of income that
was important. Women also emphasized the importance of income generation to
their independence.”

As developing countries await the 2015 review of their Millennium Development
Goals, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration will launch the
Jupiter Icy Moons Project to investigate the composition of vast saltwater lakes
beneath the ice surfaces of Jupiter’s moons and determine whether conditions for
life exist. The irony of humanity however is in spending billons of dollars in
exploring the potential for life on other planets while we allow the destruction
of life and human capabilities on planet Earth.

 

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