Women’s Rights — What’s Water Got to Do with It?
A lot — if you’re a woman in a developing nation who does not have easy access to clean drinking water.
According to Charity: Water, in Africa alone people spend 40 billion hours a year just walking to get water for themselves and their families. Most often the individuals who are bringing this vital resource back to their homes are women and children.
That time spent locating and lugging H2O means hours not spend in school, working or taking care of families. It also puts these women at risk physically and emotionally, as the long distances they have to walk makes them more vulnerable to harassment and sexual assault. It’s a huge drain on the productivity and livelihood of these women, and it has a profound affect on their health and well-being, and that of their families.
The LifeStraw
But fortunately there is much that can be done to help these women have access to safe, affordable drinking water. Two years ago I had the chance to see the Design for the Other 90% exhibit at the Walker Art Center here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
At that exhibit I saw some of the simple, innovative and low-cost tools that are being employed across Africa and Southeast Asia where access to clean and affordable drinking water is most scarce.
Among the items on display were the LifeStraw, a personal mobile water-purification tool designed to turn any surface water into drinking water. It has proven to be effective against waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and diarrhea, and removes particles as small as fifteen microns. The cost of one of these life-saving devices? Two bucks!
Another simple, yet profoundly impactful device that I saw is a simple invention call the Q-Drum, a durable container designed to roll easily, that can transport twenty gallons of clean and potable water at a time. Rolling the water in a cylindrical container, rather than lifting and carrying it like this, eases the burden of bringing water to those who need it.
I’m writing this post as a part of the international Blog Action Day on water. If you’d like to add your voice, it’s not too late! Learn more here. Consider making a donation to participating nonprofits, who are distributing devices like the ones above, and sign the petition to the UN to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe water by 2015.