On the day of writing this post (the 19th of November 2016), it is annual ‘World Toilet Day’, first established in 2013 by the UN General Assembly. The theme of this year’s event was to focus on ‘how sanitation, or the lack of it, can impact on livelihoods’ (http://www.worldtoiletday.info/theme/).
There has also been a stress placed this year on the need to invest in toilets in workplaces and schools so that women and girls have separate facilities in order to maintain their dignity and manage menstruation or pregnancy safely. This can apparently boost the ‘girl effect’ which involves maximising the involvement of half the population in society.
Sanitation is an important concept in relation to water issues and undoubtedly affects women and girls, particularly in relation to menstruation and shared facilities. For women in various parts of the global South, cultural norms combined with the desire to maintain privacy mean that women feel they can only relieve themselves under cover of darkness. This can put women at risk of scorpion or snake bites and also leaves women vulnerable to attacks or rape due to the predictability of their movements (Jewitt, 2011). Amnesty International has reported that women and girls in Nairobi’s slums are often too scared to leave their houses to use the communal toilet due to risk of attack. Some women actually feel it is safer to defecate in a plastic bag than go out to shared toilets at night due to the risks they may face.
Furthermore, water.org emphasises the problem of school toilets as some schools have no toilets available or do not provide separate toilets for girls meaning that many girls drop out of school once they reach puberty. This perpetuates gender inequality issues as well as poverty according to WASH Advocates.
WASH Advocates further state that women and girls may be choosing to ignore their needs because of a culmination of the issues stated above and so their likelihood of developing urinary tract infections, chronic constipation or mental stress may be increased.
A recurring conclusion in much of the academic literature, ‘grey’ literature and websites I have read in regard to all the themes I have previously discussed, is the need for female empowerment as a solution to water issues. Sanitation is no different as women’s participation can increase the effectiveness of water and sanitation management schemes as well as the sustainability of these projects. School attendance can be increased as the need for separate toilet facilities are acknowledged which can, in turn, improve gender equality issues as a whole. Ultimately, women’s voices and concerns must be heard in order for water and sanitation issues, that are currently affecting them so negatively, to be addressed.
References
Jewitt, S. 2011. Geographies of shit: Spatial and temporal variations in attitudes towards human waste. Progress in Human Geography 35, 608–626.
Hi Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteAnother great post! I really enjoy the depth of your posts and the thought and planning behind them. You suggest that: 'women’s voices and concerns must be heard in order for water and sanitation issues'. But as the literature suggests, women often lack the confidence to speak in public male-dominated forums, regarding their own issues and interests. What do you think can be done to provide women with the confidence and the space to discuss such issues?
I really recommend this article by Cornwall (2003) who discusses the issues with female participation in resource management:
Cornwall, A., 2003. Whose voices? Whose choices? Reflections on gender and participatory development. World development, 31(8), pp.1325-1342.
Hi Sristi! Thanks so much for your comment and for the article suggestion! This is actually something we have touched on in another module I am taking this term as community participation can sometimes lead to elites within the community taking charge thereby making the process unfair. I think the conclusion in the article you have provided mirrors my own opinion that efforts must be made to allow marginalised voices to be heard and rather than just 'adding women and stirring', strategies are needed to take account of differences both in terms of opinions and experiences among all stakeholders. We need to be sensitive to different societies and individual feelings, and so if women do not have the confidence to speak up in public domains, perhaps separate workshops and meetings could be run for women only as this would perhaps be a good starting point for women's voices to be heard and for women to share. I may do a separate blog post entirely on this article as it really was an interesting read. Thank you for drawing it to my attention and for your insightful question.
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