Water and Women

In developing countries, people who lack access to clean water face unimaginable choices every day. For many women the choice is between giving their families dirty, disease-ridden water or going thirsty, which is not an option. Providing water for a family is a daily struggle in many developing countries for women.

The lack of basic infrastructure, including clean water, has devastating consequences on the dignity and physical well-being of women in developing countries.

It is typically women who collect water everyday for their families often walking many miles to seek out water sources. Once water has been found the burden of carrying up to 40 pounds of water per person back to the home begins. This daily  ritual is life-sustaining but at the same time may kill someone in their family if the water they are drinking has come from a contaminated source.

It is important not to underestimate this side of the water burden, even though there are no compelling statistics, comparable to health statistics, documenting the labor burden related to insufficient/inadequate water supplies.

It is difficult for those of us who rely on public water systems and private wells to appreciate how time consuming , tiring, stressful and inconvenient this can be for women. 

Is the measure of a woman's life only that she stood in line and collected water for hours everyday just to bring water to her family...and that was all she did her whole life?