Women and Water

THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY

By Caroline Preston

By the time their husbands arise each day, many African women have been awake for hours collecting the water their families will use to drink, wash, and cook. Women can easily spend six hours a day walking to wells, waiting in line, and making the trek back while carrying metal buckets on their heads filled with as much water as they can lift.

The limited water supply has not only had a crippling effect on Africa’s economy and the health of its people, it has also taken a particularly heavy toll on women, say officials at WaterAid, an international charity. The group was formed in 1981 to bring safe water, sanitation, and hygiene education to the developing world. But it has found that such efforts have the added benefit of improving the lives of women by freeing up more time for other activities once safe water is more easily obtained.

WaterAid is based in London, but has offices in many other parts of the world, including 11 offices in sub-Saharan Africa and four in Asia. The charity builds latrines and irrigation systems using simple technology that officials can train local residents to maintain on their own.

Most of the approximately $40-million that WaterAid raises each year comes from individuals.

“We could be in and out in a week if we were just building a facility,” says Emily Boyd-Carpenter, director of the group’s U.S. office. Instead, the charity makes a multiple-year commitment to the communities where it works, teaching villagers about sanitation and then helping them form committees to ensure the facilities are kept clean and used properly after the charity’s staff members finish their work.

Women are sometimes picked to serve on the committees, which can precipitate a shift in gender roles. Ikognane, a woman from Madagascar pictured here, oversees 15 people who cultivate this garden created with help from WaterAid. With less time spent on water transport, female gardeners like Ikognane have started businesses selling produce.