Women, water management and climate change

Climate change is a global problem; however, it effects some people more than others, climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of these events. In particular it impacts developing countries, and the vulnerable within them. Many of the effects of climate change which they receive includes water based problems, as much if Africa receives droughts and flooding. These difficulties have dire consequences for those who are socially and economically vulnerable, this often includes women. Women face the brunt of these occasions not only because of social and economic factors but because of their geographic location.  These extreme weathers have killed more women than men and this is often due to the socio-economic status of the women. In this blog, I will be exploring the ways in which women in Africa are subject to a harsher climate change than men, and the reasons for this occurrence.

According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) South Africa, Mozambique and Kenya all suffer from vulnerability to climate change in regard to water in social, political and ecological significance.

In many rural African households, the women are the managers and collectors of the natural resources, which their family use daily. Often women must travel far distances, often experiencing health problems as a result, in order to obtain water from the public source. With extreme weather circumstances as a result of climate change, this is directly impacting the women who have to travel long, as well as short distances for their water. If they are experiencing a drought, the women are often forced to travel longer distances to obtain the water. This can not only lead to health issues, but is often dangerous, as there are gangs which control some water sources. Similar outcomes occur when the extreme weather changes they are experiencing is flooding. As erosion and perodic flooding can lead to salt water intrusion, thus contaminating the drinking water, forcing the women to collect water from elsewhere. The increasing frequency and magnitude of these extreme weather events are negatively impacting women’s everyday tasks, the United Nations predict that two-thirds of arable land in Africa will disappear by 2025.

Although women’s daily lives are more impacted than men’s’ lives they often have none too little say about the decision making in regard to climate change proposals for adaptation. These decisions are often made at a community level, they usually only include the heads of the community which are men. It would be extremely beneficial if women were included in these talks and decisions as they have first-hand experience of the problems and not only how they need to be solved but which should be priority over others. Women possess local social and ecological knowledge, which they have attained through the years of their traditional gender roles. This community education and organisation should be used and exploited in order to live through climate change and what it brings.

This bottom-up approach will enable the community to work together, and value the opinions and problems of women. They will be able to use the local knowledge to evaluate their vulnerabilities to climate change and develop solutions through democratic participation. The communities can learn from other groups who have had similar experiences with extreme weather and how they have handled the situations they were in.

Overall, it is clear that climate change regularly has fatal circumstances, especially to women. Not only can these events prove to be fatal to women but if not, are disruptive to their daily lives and tasks. For example, if they experience flooding or drought they could be forced to travel further in order to collect water for their families, often putting them in dangerous situations. Over years or carrying out these tasks and living in environmentally dangerous places women have developed much knowledge on the ecosystem and how the extreme weather events disrupt it. This knowledge could be highly beneficial to bottom-up approaches which aim to tackle water management during climate change. At the moment, many women are not consulted when these decisions are being made, this will need to be changed if communities want to survive these events.

References

Anisfeld, S.C., 2010. Water Resources. Island Press, Washington, DC.

Meyer, W.B., Butzer, K.W., Downing, T.E., Turner II, B.L., Wenzel, G.W., Wescoat, J.L., 1998. Reasoning by analogy. In: Rayner, S., Malone, E.L. (Eds.), Human Choice and Climate Change. The Tools for Policy Analysis, vol. 3. Battelle Press, Washington, D.C, p. 217-289.

Mirza, M.M.Q., 2003. Climate change and extreme weather events: can developing countries adapt? Climate Policy 3 (3), p.233-248.

Moraes, A., Perkins, P.E., 2009. Etica, Genero e Classe Social na Politíca Participativa de Agua. In: Gislene Aparecida dos Santos (Ed.), Etica, Pesquisa e Políticas Publicas. Editora Rubio, São Paulo, Brazil, p. 107-122.

Neumayer, E., Plümper, T., September 2007. Catastrophic events on the gender gap in life expectancy, 1981-2002. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97 (3), p.551-566.