Safe Water and Sanitation: A Challenge for Gender Equality

Nov 1, 2021 | Wahid Bhat
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Without clean and safe water there is no gender equality. Although access to water and sanitation has been recognized for more than a decade as a basic human right, the way in which women and girls bear the worst consequences of water scarcity, ranging from a worse education to a greater number of diseases. And it is that the importance of water for sustainable development goes far beyond a mere physical issue to fully enter into gender and public health issues, mainly in less developed countries.

The main problem that hinders the relationship between water and gender equality is a matter of time. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) points out those women perform up to 80% of informal unpaid work related to water supply, especially on the African continent. This means that, in less developed countries where there are no adequate infrastructures that guarantee access to safe water and sanitation in each house, women are responsible for finding this resource, vital for their families to be able to drink, cook, clean themselves and survive.