Water and women- the secret weapon
in the battle against climate change in Nepal
Dr. Sunita Sharma
Abstract
We
are in the midway of sustainable development goals- 2030 the effects of climate
on water and the ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change, are mediated
by social factors, including gender. This article demonstrates the
interrelation between climate change, water, and women. It documents evidence
for gender differences in accessing and use of water that is likely to be
exacerbated by climate change, and the stress created on poor women. This
article focuses on the women who live with the water stress every day, women
who face the harsh cycle of unprecedented floods and landslides, washing away
their livelihood, and then suck their crops dry again because of drought, compromising
the basic hygiene and food, loaded with works, deprive of food and nutrition
and suffer from various types stresses. It also summarizes the vital nexus
among women’s coping and adapting of water stress and the relation of this to
their life and livelihood in the climate change context. The effects of climate
on human society, and our ability to mitigate and adapt to them, are mediated
by social factors, including gender. This study provides a first review of the
interactions between climate change, gender, and water. It documents evidence
for gender differences in health risks that are likely to be exacerbated by
climate change, and in adaptation and mitigation measures that can help to
protect and promote health.
Introduction
Climate change impacts have a direct consequence for water security. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) alerted the global community
to the great vulnerability of freshwater resources as a result of climate
change. A recent study by the International Food Policy Research Institute
found that 4.8 billion people – more than half the world’s population – and
approximately half of global grain production will be at risk due to water
stress by 2050 if business-as-usual persists (Nature),
Nov, 2015)
Nepal is considered as one of the hot spots for
negative effects of climate change. According to the report of Nepal Adaptation
Plan for Action 2010, Nepal falls on 4th most vulnerable country in the world
in terms of negative effects of climate change. Vulnerability is even more
among the special groups of people especially poor women because of its
geography, poor physical infrastructure and the low level of development of its
social sectors. Disasters events specially flood in the lowland areas and
landslides and drought in hill and mountainous areas adding furthers
vulnerabilities to these groups. This study was conducted in eight most climate
vulnerable districts in Nepal identified by NAPA.
In Nepal, flood landslide and drought are commonly
related with extreme weather events specifically precipitation pattern and the
frequency. However, there are some not climatic factors as well to contribute
to the hazards/events but this section focusses mostly with the climate
associated stresses which has direct and indirect impacts on the health of poor
women. This section also illustrates that in which way the hazards mentioned
above are execrated by the climate change. According to the national disaster
response framework of ministry of home affair of Nepal, flood is prioritized as
second most serious hazard in Nepal after earthquake and many of the mitigation
and preparedness plans are developed and implemented around flood.
Literature
review
Water
connects us in the most fundamental way. We cannot survive without it.
Moreover, water is intrinsically linked to the most immediate challenges we
face today, including food security, health, climate change, economic growth,
and a key element of Sustainable Development Goal 2030. Today, one of the
largest concerns around the world is the lack of freshwater for drinking and
cooking.
The
importance of involving both women and men in the management of water and
sanitation and access-related questions has been recognized at the global
level, starting from the 1977 United Nations Water Conference at Mar del Plata,
the International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade (1981-90) and the
International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin (January 1992),
which explicitly recognizes the central role of women in the provision,
management and safeguarding of water.
Promoting “gender equity” is included as one of the
17 goals of sustainable development goal- 2030. Achieving gender
equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 goals. It
has been recognized that without harnessing the talents, human capital and
economic potential of women, the overall goal will not be met.
Men and women have different uses for water, a
reflection of their roles in the household and more broadly, the economy. Women
face disproportionate challenges in accessing water supply and sanitation
services. Women and girls spend more time than men in water collection, a
burden that restricts them from participating in other productive activities.
It
is documented that women are more vulnerable than men, not critically because
they represent the world's poor but because technologies are not gender neutral
(NAPA, 2010). Women and girls spend more time than men in water collection, a
burden that restricts them from participating in other productive activities.
Ensuring equitable access to convenient water sources can reduce women’s work
load, and help free up time for agriculture, other economic activities, and
improve girls’ school attendance.50-500 million people facing severe water
shortages by 2020 (Upreti, 2012).
In fact, during natural disasters, often more women
die than men because they are not warned, cannot swim or cannot leave the house
alone (Society for International Development, 2018). This means that they are
less able to mobilize resources, will be more likely to be overrepresented in
the unemployed following a disaster, and are overburdened with domestic
responsibilities leaving them with less freedom to pursue sources of income. In
addition to these issues, women are often the victims of domestic and sexual
violence following a natural disaster. (Society for International Development,
2018)
Walking
long distances to fetch water and fuel can expose women and girls to harassment
or sexual assault, especially in areas of conflict. There are many accounts of
women and girls being attacked
when searching for water and kindling in refugee camps around Darfur (Medicine
Sans Frontireres (MSF), 2011). In the mid and far western regions of Nepal,
undue practice of Chhupadi (Menstruation) is common. During the menstruation
period, women are kept in cow sheds and they are not given to drink milk, eat
nutritious food and even not allowed to use taps and wells (Adhikari, 2012).
Lack of access to water points contribute to poor hygiene practices during
menstruation and later on result to infections of genital organs and many other
complications. Many studies have proved that poor menstrual hygiene is one to
the cause of uterine cancer. So, it is hard to benefit women from water supply.
Issue of menstrual hygiene are terrible not only from health perspective but
from dignity of humanitarian perspective
Perceived effect of climate change in
Nepal
Most
of the participants in the village feel that rainfall pattern has been changed.
Water level in springs, rivers and hand pumps is reduced. Similarly, people in terai
region mentioned that the intensity of the rainfall is high but the frequency
is less. During the focus group discussion people in all the study areas of
terai mentioned that they used to have rainfall in fix time (July –September).
But now a days there is no certainty, sometimes it is in June and sometime in
October, sometime they have to plant the paddy for two their times and we don’t
grow the paddy at all. For two years we
are not able to grow our winter crops have because of no rain in winter” Said
- Renu Kumari Ram, Community Facilitator of Hanumannagr in Saptari district.
Similarly,
in the Chure area and mid hill areas people perceives that their water sources
are drying year by year and there is either heavy rain in monsoon and they face
flash flood which results in damage of crop and water system and in winter
there is less or no rain so all the they could not grow winter crop and have to
live with water stress since water systems get dried. Respondents from all
study sites specially hill and chure areas reported that they are living with
water stress throughout the year. Per capita average water use per day per day
in this area is: 15-20 liters in rainy season and 5-10 liters in winter/ dry
season). More severe situation is there in the cities and semi urban areas. Residence
of all four municipality (Baglung Kathmandu Lalitpur and Kirtipur) reported
that they are force to manage their living with 5 liters of water per person
per day in average. Majority (80%) of respondents in the cities were renters. On the other hand,
low land areas people are forced to use contaminated water during monsoon
either or they have walked some 500 meters to get the safe water from raised
hand pump around, 90 households have to share a single tube well. Drought has
reduced the water level in the well to the extent that residents are forced to
drink poor quality water from a surface well one hour away from the village
Economic Impact
According
to the findings, people in the cities are paying around 3000 rupees per month
to buy water. According to them the water supply managed by Kathmandu Upathayka
Khanepani Limited is not regular. In dry season supply is only once in week
where during monsoon supply is twice a week. Women specially staying in rent go
far away (1 km in average) to collect the water from Dhungedhara (Stone spout).
Many times, they lose their daily wage as they have to spend half a day to
fetch the water.
Similar
experiences were shared by the women of Chure and hill districts. They stated
that they have to carry water some 2 kilometer far source especially in dry
season. All kind of their livelihood (agriculture, vegetable farming and
livestock keeping) is being impaired day by as a result of scarce water.
Health Impact-General
People mentioned that mosquito breeding, emergence of
new pest and diarrheal diseases, especially among the children are key public
health concerns. From the observation we found that pit latrines were the main
breeding places for mosquitoes in dry areas. People especially in hill district
and Kathamndu valley mentioned that malaria is emerging disease in the area,
which was not there some 8-10 years before. Hygiene practice especially hand
washing with soap is very poor in these communities. “We cannot afford water
for hand washing with soap, if all the family members wash hand with water, 2 Gagries
(40 liters) of water is required, we only wash the hand after defecation,
otherwise, we never wash the hand with soap and water” said Sushila Shapkota,
KI of Baglung
|
Dilmaya
Pariyar(50yrs) residence of Gaidatar village of Routahat said that she
recently had removed her prolapsed uterus (hysterectomy) through the
donation of women activist. She is the mother of 5 children and all the
children were born at home. Her husband has passed away some 10 years ago.
Since then her work load has been doubled, she doesn’t have the land so her
source of income is wage labor. She normally works
for 18 hours a day and seems very pale (severely mal nourished). According
to her most of the time she needs to compromise food |
Specific
Impact on Women
The increased physical as well as mental stress of women
was mainly related to scarce water in the study area. Women generally work 18
hours in a day. The hardest work they frequently mentioned was the long-distanced
water point; about one-hour walking distance in summer and around two hours in
winter. Some young women and girls feel insecure to go to Jangle to collect water
when the nearby water points get dried in winter. “If you will support us to have sufficient
water in this area, we shall consider you as a god-said-Sarswoti Pariyar”
According to Dhan Parasad Sapkota, KI and
social activist of Gaidatar, women are solely responsible for all water related
business. Men just enjoy the water by using (bathing and maintaining personal
hygiene). He further mentioned that in life time had had never and ever
collected water from the source. Out of 150 women interacted through focus
group, 31 found with some level of uterus prolapsed. According to the key
informant, one out of 10 women in the village have some degree of Uterine prolapsed.
In the discussion women mentioned that the reason behind this problem is due to
carrying of heavy loads (specially water and fodder).
|
Ranjita
yadav, 20 yrs., wife of Abadh yedav, last year missed her fetus inside of
her womb. Village was inundated with water. She had a severe labor pain.
Villagers were trying to take her to the hospital. They called the ambulance
driver but he rejected to tome to the village. People did not have other
means to take her to hospital. Ranjita had to fight with her life for
almost two days. At the end she had to deliver a dead fetus. |
On the other hand, too much water is causing distress among
the women in the low land areas. Rajodevi Shah, 24yeras pregnant months from
Routahat said, women in the river basic on Rato river do not sleep for several
nights during the rainy season, as thy expect flash flood anytime and get their
house inundated, we got stock at home for several week, with no access to the
market and heal facilities as road are completely blocked. Men can swim and go
away but women remained home, protecting assets and children while the house
are inundated with water. Main problem for women during flood if defecation.
Whole day they women in low land areas during the monsoon used to be busy to
remove the inundated water from house. They have two raised hand pumps. Women
are solely responsible to collect the water from HP some 500 meter
Similar case happened for Budhiya Khatun. Main problem
for women during flood if defecation. Whole day they women in low land areas
during the monsoon used to be busy to remove the inundated water from house.
They have two raised hand pumps. Women are solely responsible to collect the
water from HP some 500 meter far during the time of flood.
Conclusion
o Water plays a pivotal
role in how the world mitigates and adapts to the effects of climate change. An
integrated view of the water, the biosphere, and environmental flows are
required to devise sustainable agricultural and economic systems that will
allow us to decelerate climate change, protect us from extremes, and adapt
to the unavoidable at the same time. This article covers the key but minimum
finding forms the initial study carried out by the researcher in few selected
study areas. Therefore, the findings in this action will not be in line with
the literature. Hence, I have tried by best to make the finding meaningful
through triangulation of findings by use of multiple research tools and techniques.
It is likely that increased temperatures will further affect the physical,
chemical and biological properties of freshwater with predominantly adverse
impacts on many individuals’ livelihood and health. From various literatures it
has revealed the there is high possibility of heavy more frequent precipitation
events in Nepal in the years to come due to climate change which depend
primarily on changes in the volume and timing of precipitation and, crucially,
whether precipitation falls as snow or rain.
Although
Nepal is known as a water-rich country, holding second position after Brazil,
the people of have been sufferings from insufficient and unhygienic drinking
water. Per capita average water use per day per day is 10 liters, which below
the global standard during crisis situation as per the SPHERE standard.
Many
areas across the country are now facing acute water shortages. Water crises
have emerged in the major cities and small villages as well. In remote
districts, people are forced to walk for hours just to bring a vessel of water.
Initial finding revealed that students are forced to miss classes and women
forced to ignore hunger for hours in the pursuit of water. Fights are even
breaking out between villagers as a result of water shortages. Water scarcity
has become a problem of serious scale.
Access
to safe water is now regarded as a universal human right. However, people of
Nepal facing increasing problems in getting freshwater. There are several
reasons for this, which are not necessarily linked to climate change. A lack of
available water, a higher and more uneven water demand resulting from
population growth in concentrated areas, an increase in urbanization. In this
context, climate change simply represents an additional burden for water
utilities, or any other organization providing water, in meeting basic needs.
It is difficult to identify climate change effects at a local level, but the
observed effects combined with projections provide a useful basis to prepare
for the future.
Changing climate may further exacerbate the water
stress, which is already evident in Nepal due to the monsoon-dominated climate.
Almost every year in Nepal, there is a usual problem of floods and landslides
during the rainy seasons because of too much water, whereas there is a common
problem of droughts during the dry seasons because of too little water. Climate
change would further increase this seasonal imbalance of water in Nepal.
Similarly, there will be substantial socioeconomic implications of reduced
water availability.
In its summary climate change is now
recognized as one of the most serious challenges facing by the people of Nepal.
Notwithstanding the widespread assumption of water related stress and climate
change, this case study has revealed that climate change is only may not be the
reason for water stress. It is important to consider that there are many other
aspects of water stress.
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