Women and water collection rural vs urban areas

I recently came across a report highlighting that in many developing countries, it is the case that the proportion of women involved in water collection is close to being equal to men in both rural and urban areas (Geere, 2017) as shown in figure 1. Interestingly however, this trend is less significant in Sub-Saharan Africa (with the exception of Mombosa and Kenya) where in both rural and urban areas, women proportionately are the main bearers of water. With this finding, I came across an interesting case study in Ghana, which will provide an insight into the influence of cultural norms tied in with women in African societies and the influence of socio-economic status affecting the roles of women in water collection in both rural and urban areas.

Figure 1: Responsibilities of water collection in rural and urban areas 

In Kumasi city, the 2^nd largest metropolitan areas in Ghana, there is an increasing need for water to meet the needs for increasing urbanization and by 2025, Ghana will have reached the limit for water stress (Quartey, 2014). Socio-economic status significantly determines the role of women in water collection in the city. Kumasi can be divided into 2 distinct socio-economic zones, ie. the 1^st zone that is characterized by villas, government and residential settlements consisting of 30% of the city’s population. Meanwhile, the 2^nd zone house the rest of the population living in informal settlements largely composed of rural-urban migrants from Northern Ghana (Akumiah, 2007). As such there is a distinct difference in the role of water collection for women according to housing types, with reference to a study looking into water management and health in Kumasi.

In the core of the city where zone 1 is located, priority is given to satisfying the needs for water, due to major industries operating in the area and the socio-economic status of households whom are mostly government official sand politicians and are able to secure water resource with their ability to pay, women living in such households in the city core are therefore not dependent on water collection.

In comparison, in the periphery of the city where the informal settlements are located, ¾ of the population fetch water away from their homes from shallow wells. This is due to the unsustainable allocation for water sources, in which public piped water systems lacks connection to many households and additionally, the lack of money for maintenance for service and the extorting prices of water sold by water vendors. Hence women and children living in informal settlements spend most of their day for water collection.

A respondent from a poor household said that “Water is scarce when one sees women and children with buckets traveling long distance, spending hours to the source”.

Rural Ghana

The cultural hindrance on women is even greater in rural areas, where girls and women are burdened with majority of the time spent on un-paid domestic activities such as taking care of siblings, cooking, cleaning and especially fetching water, meanwhile men intensively participate in paid activities. In total rural Ghanian girls and women spend 43.5 hours in water collection alone, with this figure increasing with dry seasons where multiple water runs would be required. Apart from cultural roles, the significant number of hours spent in water collection in rural Ghana is also attributed by the water infrastructure available. Figure 2 shows the water sources available from 4 rural towns in a study on temporal and spatial water patterns in rural Ghana (Kulinkina, 2016).

Figure 2 Water resources available in a study from 4 rural towns

Although the National Community Water and Sanitation Program introduced piped water systems in the 1990s, to this date this only accounts for 16.6% of the rural Ghanian population’s access to water (Kulinkina, 2016). An interviewee reported that the area was less prone to waterborne diseases outbreak when relying on river water and there based on local habits (disregarding water quality) there is also a preference for the taste of river water and hand dug wells compared to piped sources. Hence, this is also one of the factors contributing to majority of the population’s reliance on surface water, self-collected rainwater and hand dug wells as main water sources, which requires women travelling longer distances of up to an average of 5 miles for water.

Overall, socio-economic status stratifies the role of women in water collection in urban areas, where women living in households in central Ghana water needs are politically prioritized for industries and socio-economically wealthy households, reducing the role of women in water collection. Whereas in informal settlements and rural areas, due to unsustainable water sources and cultural norms, there is a need to travel distances to collect water, in which women spend majority of their time for water collection. So why do all these hours spent on water collection matter? Stay tuned for the next post.