You may be woman, but I can’t hear you roar. In fact, Ican’t hear you at all.
Maybe it is because you don’t really have time. No one can blame you. But maybe if you, andthe hundreds of millions of women across the developing world trapped in similarsituations, weren’t forced to waste hours and hours each day hiking to find andcollect contaminated water for your families – just imagine what you could do.
Alemitu used to wake at 2 a.m. every morning with herneighbors. Together, they would walk formiles in the darkness, bare feet against the rocky, rural Ethiopian terrain. Alemitu carried a five-gallon plasticcontainer with her, a vessel that once held chemicals but now served to carrywater for her family. Yet even when shearrived at the pond, she had to wait in line with the other women fromneighboring communities to fill up. After she finally had her turn, shewould strap the 44 pounds of dirty, fetid water on her back, and hike home.This journey took five to six hours – every single day.
When she and the other members of her community receivedtheir new, safe, and nearby water source, their lives were changedforever. A hand pump meant no moreleeches in their water, no more sharing their water with livestock and otheranimals, no more strained back and stunted lives. For Alemitu, the pumpinstantly relieved her of hours of work, creating more time in her day, moreenergy for daily activities, and more time with her children. She finally wasintroduced to once remote concepts like opportunity and possibility.
The world finally seems to be awakening to the inherentpower that women possess – energy and talent that is needed to address the manychallenges that face our planet. Thispast March – also known as International Women’s Month – President Obama said,"We will not sow the seeds for a brighter future or reap the benefits ofthe change we need without the full and active participation of women aroundthe world." Goldman Sachs used themonth to publish its landmark "Womenomics" report which found thatinvestments in women correlates to real economic growth in developed anddeveloping countries.
Earlier this summer, New York Times columnistNicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDun headlined the August 17 issue of TheNew York Times Magazine with aremarkable piece, “The Women’sCrusade.” The article precursor ed therelease of their new book “Halfthe Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” apowerful work whose title is based on the Chinese proverb that “women hold uphalf the sky.” Through countlessexamples and bold writing, Kristof and WuDun powerfully assert that thisproverb is an ideal rather than a reality.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has placed gender rights high on her agenda. Last month, her husband explicitly prioritized the issue of“investing in girls and women” at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative, a themethat carried through their four main topics of focus at the conference. More recently, TheGirl Effect has been getting a lot of notice on the web. It presents ashort, simple, and striking word-only animation of the world’s problems solvedby nothing other than - you guessed it –a girl. Finally, Oprah dedicated herrecent October1 show to this same topic, calling attention to women’s issuesworldwide such as sex trafficking, forced prostitution, education, maternalmortality, and domestic violence.
Make no mistake, addressing transnational issues such aseducation and sex slavery are critical to enabling gender equality and tapping theremarkable capabilities of women around the world. But there also needs to be a distinctcorollary drawn between women and water. Water must make its way onto the shortlist of global policy priorities. Because the water crisis is truly is a women’s crisis with broad implications for all of humanity.
Take Alemitu’s story – tragically, this Sisyphean journey isrepeated on a daily basis in every corner of the earth. Whether Ethiopia or Haiti, Honduras or India,Indonesia or Egypt - the topography may differ, the culture may vary, but thestruggle is the same. Women inevitably bear the burden of collecting the water essentialto sustain their families. Now, imaginemore than 200 millionhours squandered every single day by women aroundthe world, females obligated to collect water fromdistant, often polluted sources.
Again, 200 million hours - every single day. It is numbing to calculate the human tolland wasted productivity associated with this labor. Thus, in order to begin to address anywomen’s issues, we must start with the basics. Simply put, nothing is morefundamental than providing women with safe and convenient access to clean water.
Thankfully, many impressive organizations and movements arestriving to raise awareness and to engage people on women’s issues, increasinglyin a manner relevant to water. CARE deserves recognition for its long-standingappreciation of the link between gender equity and water access. The AmericanJewish World Service has done meaningful work in the developing world toaddress the water-based gender gap. Water.org also hasconnected the dots to demonstrate that water is, at its essence, clearly awomen’s issue. Whether through aidprograms, micro-enterprise strategies or holistic social development, theseNGOs and others are pioneering new models to improve women’s access to waterand alleviating this chronic problem (editor’s note: the author serves on theboard of water.org).
There is a lot of talk these days about “investing” and “empowering”the so-called “bottom billion.” Yet, forall of us who want to repair the world, we must do more than talk. Instead, we must focus our collective effortswhere it matters most. Addressing the linkage between women and water is anideal starting point.
Indeed, for those who have had the privilege of touching thesky, we know that, when we help women access water and sanitation, we providethem with the opportunity to lead lives of productivity and power, to meettheir potential, and to discover their roar.