For Safe Drinking Water
and Sanitation with Dignity

 

Collecting water is a fierce struggle for millions of women in the country. Innumerable villages and slums in India still do not have access to clean, safe drinking water and sanitation. Excessive extraction of groundwater without adequate recharging is rapidly depleting groundwater reservoirs. Its devastating impact can be seen in recurrent droughts and diminishing agricultural production.

The economy of the entire Bundelkhand region of Central India is dependent on rain/monsoon, both directly and indirectly. Wells are the major source of drinking water and irrigation; but maintaining the level of water in them depends on adequate rain.  Records reveal that the region recorded 64 per cent less rainfall in 2007, portraying a continuous decline since 2003-04. More than one-third of the wells of Tikamgarh district in this region have dropped drastically from the original level in the last decade.
In poor and disadvantaged areas, lack of access to water, costs a woman dearly; her tears a metaphor for water - as she struggles for this fundamental need. Helplessness writ large on her face – she either watches rivers overflow their banks mixing precious water with sewage or, prays for rain to bring relief to the parched earth. In Bundelkhand, “fetching water” is the central theme in a woman’s life. A popular Bundelkhandi song poignantly says - let the husband die, but never let the water-pot be broken.

Lack of sanitation not only heaps indignities on women; it also has an impact on health. For example, severely anaemic women in many rural areas do not take iron tablets during pregnancy, as iron absorption can be difficult and often leads to stomach upsets. Lack of access to toilet space, therefore, becomes a big deterrent. Current knowledge indicates that iron deficiency anaemia in pregnancy is a risk factor for preterm delivery and subsequent low birth weight and possibly for inferior neonatal health.
To meet the goals for safe drinking water and basic sanitation, we need a wide variety of initiatives - information and research dissemination; incentives; appropriate institutions; relevant polices and legislation, equitable allocation of resources and - women made central to sustainable water management. Affordable, acceptable and eco-friendly techniques like rainwater harvesting, active recharging of groundwater aquifers for augmenting water levels, watershed development, low cost solutions for safe drinking water and practical sanitation options are essential for integrated water management.

So far, the bearers of the water burden were excluded from the decision-making process of water management and distribution. But now, water rights and water reforms are taking into account their traditional responsibility, seeing the hapless women evolve as astonishingly better managers since, ‘thirst teaches water’! Only the water fetchers trudging miles to quench the thirst of their families can be local supervisors of water-harvesting - using innovative methods such as mist, air and dew collection. This assertion stems from women inherently possessing the nurturing quality - critical for the conservation of this vital resource. An added advantage is their innate knowledge of local issues and resources - very important for chalking out a practical strategy.
New ideas abound for recharging of existing water resources and collecting water. Alon Alex Gross’s fog and dew collection models – designed specifically to collect drinking water in arid and semi-arid regions, can effectively collect about 1.5 litres of clean water each night in net screens from fog. Another model ready for replication is S.S. Sivakumar’s Akash Ganga, which captures water from the air.

For sanitation, dignity and security are the prime concerns for women but sanitation cannot be a simple technology transfer. The community must be ready to receive these solutions and be committed to maintain them. This pledge can be given if women are made the agents of change.

Development professionals and governments must guarantee that supply of water is round the clock - that is affordable and safe; and that sanitation options for toilets, sewage, drainage and recycling are within the power of the poor. It is then that the traditional managerial capability of the womenfolk can work with technology solutions, to assure safe water and sanitation as a basic right - essential to life and human dignity. q

Indira Mansingh
imansingh@devalt.org
 

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