Water For People takes a look at the effects of the global water crisis on women and girls in developing countries. On average, women and girls carry 40 pounds of water 3.5 miles every day, hindering their opportunity to work or attend school, and continuing the cycle of poverty.
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when animals move toward water it’s one of nature’s great phenomena part of the eternal cycle of seasons for people in the developing world the same act can involve drudgery difficulty and miles of walking to and from a water source as primitive as a hand-dug well then waiting hours for a bucket of mud coloured liquid to percolate up slowly from the earth water that may well be contaminated though still welcomed by parched throats at home in virtually all developing countries finding caring and managing water is women’s work typically women and children can spend up to two-thirds of their waking hours hauling water the fill containers often weigh as much as 45 pounds the effort can consume 25 percent of a woman’s daily caloric intake the heavy weight creates long-term joint pain the strain on a woman’s hip and pelvic area can cause difficulties during pregnancy and the contact with contaminated water exposes women to a greater risk of disease finding and hauling water excludes them from education income generation and cultural and political activities without water toilets and privacy girls often drop out of school when they reach puberty it’s part of the reason why every 2 out of 3 illiterate people are women and why women make up 70% of the world’s poor this gender bias effectively removes women from life outside the home and family but it’s a fate that is not inevitable access to safe water near home can transform a woman’s life and the life of her children by reducing the time and resources spent hauling water access to adequate sanitation can give a woman privacy convenience safety and a chance for improved health there is an old saying in rural Indian villages that speaks to the enduring connection between women and water let your husband die it says but the earthen part of water should not be broken with your interest and support we can help women move from a life of illness and lost opportunities to a far more positive future for more information on our work to improve access to safe water and sanitation call us now or visit our website
SKG Sangha has radically improved the lives of thousands of rural families in Karnataka, South India by supplying them with both dung based biogas plants for cooking and a specially designed unit that turns the slurry from the biogas plant into high quality fertiliser. The benefits of biogas are well known. It provides rural women with a cheap, reliable source of energy as well as reducing indoor air pollution and easing pressure on forest resources. Less well known is how turning the biogas residue into high quality fertiliser can increase crop yields and, more importantly, give rural women the chance to make a profit. The units supplied by SKG Sangha produce fertiliser simply by combining the slurry with straw and leaves and then adding worms which re-digest the mixture to produce vermicompost. This vermicompost improves the yields of family crops and the liquid output from the unit can be used as an organic pesticide. The growing demand in India for organic fertiliser means that women can earn as much from selling half the vermicompost they produce as the household earns from selling the crops they grow. Since 1993, SKG Sangha has installed over 43,000 biogas plants in the state of Karnataka alone.
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Nonprofits & Activism
