Development in Africa: Water and Gender

Welcome back to my blog. Following on from last week’s entry and how water scarcity disadvantages women more so than men, I want to build on that notion by particularly looking at the journey women of all ages and young men face in water collection. There will be a particular emphasis on a rural locality in the developing country of Uganda and forms of alleviating this.  We know that water is not unanimously distributed within each country , resulting from different levels of poor water governance, physical factors as well as cultural social norms. Looking more so at the cultural norms for the rest of the blog, it can be the case where women throughout their lifetimes carry the burden of having to collect the water . I call it a burden, as their journey consists of a long walk, carrying heavy bottles of water, and being subject to many injustices and dangers, which will be discussed later on in this entry.  Delving into the case of Uganda , it is a country that is deemed water...

Welcome back! In this entry, I will go into further detail about the water situation at hand by exploring water scarcity and groundwater and the different ways in which men and women interact with this water resource. I hope to capture the essence of how complex this premise is.  Water’s importance in the development of communities is undeniable. Often time in we forget its significance as it is such a readily available resource in the UK for the most part. But, this forgetfulness doesn’t apply to every country. Water can be a source of conflict and inequality in countries where there is water scarcity, with some of those places being situated in some countries in Africa.  As mentioned before, Africa’s water situation is a case of distribution rather than supply . In this, water scarcity metrics have been devised and updated in order to conceptualise the differential access to water among the countries in Africa. The most commonly used metric is the WSI as established by Falke...

Welcome to my first blog entry! Over the next few months, I aim to examine the complex link between water, gender and development in Africa. What drew me to this theme was the opportunity to examine the inequality women have faced with such an integral part of life and development – water , to understand why this inequality exists and what is being done to eradicate it. My interest also stems from being female myself. To begin, my first post aims to provide some initial context on Africa and how we write about it, as well as the link between water, gender and development.  Africa: Context and Portrayals Europe’s undeniable influence on the continent of Africa has had a significant impact on part of its history over the past few centuries. Colonialism during the Scramble for Africa, the slave trade and continued exploitation echoes through the development issues in the present day . Subsequently, when Europeans have spoken about Africa in literature and film, it seems to be framed a...