A gendered approach to water-sanitation projects.

Much research has proven that water problems and sanitation problems are closely interlinked yet their relationship is most often disregarded. As Dr. Elliot explained, the Cholera outbreak in 19th century England was not linked to water contamination until John Snow plotted a cholera map and realized the concentration of cases was around a particular well in the city. Similarly today, it is not well acknowledged that approximately 10% of the global health burden is affected by water.*

Solutions provided at the macro level may not be very successful due to the specificity and variety of perceptions on sanitation at a micro-level such as attitudes, practices and risk perception, the psychosocial impacts of other problems, the levels of social cohesion, and most importantly gender roles.  

If community members are not willing to use latrines, then why bother build them?

I would like to, however, dedicate this blog to highlight the gendered face of water-health problems. There is more relevance to addressing gender equity in water-related management than is generally discussed. Although there was a section devoted to exploring women’s role in Safe Water as the Key to Global Health (2008)- an effort which is commended- it was too brief.* This area of research warrants further investigation. Women bear the burden of a majority of household chores that necessitate water use (cooking, cleaning, washing laundry, walking for miles to fill up containers). They also carry the heavier burden of tending to their ill children and family members who get infected with diseases that are waterborne. Despite their customary higher contact with water, they tend to be marginalized in decision-making around improving water and health standards.  As Dr. Wallace explained, asking the men within a community for their solutions yields a completely different set of answers than that of women’s. Yet within communities built on patriarchal norms, it is expected that the men's decisions be considered.

This is why encouraging greater gender engagement in addressing water problems and explaining to women within a community how their burden can be lessened as a result, will most likely foster greater support for water and sanitation projects.

My impression is that due to the taboos around the subject of bodily wastes, sanitation has been sidelined, both as a topic of conversation and an investment priority. "In Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics", Arjun Appadurai explores the work of the Alliance, an NGO based in Mumbai which allows slum dwellers to work together to improve their standards of living. One example that caught my attention was celebrating "toilet festivals" (32).** The main idea is to redeem humiliation through a politics of recognition. Celebrating a toilet will rid it of the stigma associated with it. Initiatives like "toilet festivals" and encouraging increased female participation, mothers and young girls, can be one way to increase the success of water-sanitation projects and to achieve a sustainable community-based solution. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, Velma I. Grover, Zafar Adeel, Ulisses Confalonieri, Susan Elliott , “Safe Water as the Key to Global Health” (2008), pp.10

http://www.inweh.unu.edu/documents/SafeWater_Web_version.pdf  

** Arjun Appadurai, "Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics". Public Culture. 14, 1 (2002), pp 21-47.

*** Brodie Morgan Ramin and Anthony J. McMichael, "Climate Change and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case-Based Perspective", EcoHealth 6 (2009), pp 52–57. 

I very much enjoyed the case-specific approach used in this article selected by Dr. Wallace and Dr. Elliot for their presentation. The use of the affected individuals’ names as titles for the case studies permits focusing importance on the human suffering caused by changing environmental conditions, and water was an indirect- sometimes even direct- factor, whether due to a flood, dehydration, drought, mal-nourishment etc. It is worth noting that most of the cases were reported by women.