#NoWalking4Water, an imperative denunciation
- The campaign of the We Are Water Foundation denounces an injustice that affects millions of women and children who need to walk daily to collect water.
- The lack of access to water affects deeply the social balance and the options of autonomy and education of African women.
- The sanitation problems worsen inevitably the situation of the affected communities.
© Carlos Garriga / Fundación WAW
Can we imagine how our lives would be if we had to walk several kilometres every day to get the water we need to live? According to the figures of UN Women, in one single day, in 25 sub-Saharan countries, women and children, the ones in charge of obtaining water, spend 16 million hours collecting it to take it to their homes; it is estimated that the time spent in the whole continent would exceed 40 billion hours every year.
Should this happen in Spain, for instance, the country would be paralysed and would face bankruptcy, as the figure exceeds in 2.6 billion the working hours of the entire labour force in 2015 (37.4 billion hours).
But in Africa, the problem goes beyond the economy and is much more offensive. In areas where 40 % of the homes are more than half an hour away from the water supply, these figures mean on average 6-kilometer trips spent daily by women and children carrying containers that can weigh up to 20 kilograms, under a scorching sun and exposed to numerous dangers due to their high vulnerability.
The harm is also of a social nature. The obligation to collect water prevents adult women from participating in productive activities or in education, thus replicating and worsening the existing gender inequalities and stopping them from developing the structuring role of the family and the community that they traditionally had in the affected areas.
On the other hand, girls and boys in charge of collecting water do not attend school, and therefore a vicious circle is created that leads to social impoverishment, without any options of development.
The lack of sanitation, an aggravating factor
The lack of access to water is generally linked to the lack of suitable sanitation. This factor affects the hygiene of the population and especially women and children, as indicated by Blanca Carazo, head of Development Cooperation at UNICEF Spain, at the roundtable organised by the We Are Water Foundation Ways to make cooperation in terms of water a reality: “If women need to leave their homes to defecate, they do it at night to preserve their dignity, which results in the danger of being attacked or raped. On the other hand, there are also many girls that stop going to school when they start menstruating due to a lack of privacy in the toilets.”
A goal that cannot be postponed
For decades now the international community has become aware of the close link between women and children rights, and the access to water and sanitation. The second celebration of the World Water Day, which took place on the 22nd March 1995, had as its theme Woman and water. The awareness raising campaign launched by United Nations revealed a reality that was unknown to many. Now, in the Sustainable Development Goals, water has a key role. The goal 6 specifies: Ensure the availability of water and its sustainable management, and sanitation for all. If we attain this, no one will have to walk again to collect water. This is doubtlessly a priority objective for mankind, a right for women, children and consequently for all of us.
#NoWalking4Water, a priority objective for mankind, an action from all of us
With the aim of speaking out against this injustice, the We Are Water Foundation organises an awareness raising action under the slogan #NoWalking4Water.
This campaign, celebrated on the 22nd March on the occasion of World Water Day, unites all citizens as well as relevant people in different sectors, such as sports, communication, music or cinema. And it intends to provide visibility to this problem through the image of a 20-liter drum such as the one used by those millions of people.
How to support this action?
All those people wishing to participate, may visit the website created by the Foundation nowalking4water.org, download the image of the drum and take a picture with it to share it in the social networks along with the hashtag #NoWalking4Water. The more photos there are, the more visible the message will be. Between the 14th and 23rd March you may also visit the different locations in Barcelona and Madrid where the mural of the We Are Water Foundation will be displayed, take your picture and upload it in your social networks as well. This year they will be displayed at:
Roca Barcelona Gallery - Joan Güell Street, 212
Dates: 14th to 23rd March
Opening hours: from 10 am to 8 pm / Saturdays until 2 pm and Sundays closed.
Maremágnum (main hall), Barcelona – Port Vell
Dates: 19th to 22nd March
Opening hours: 10 am to 10 pm
Roca Madrid Gallery – José Abascal Street, 57
Dates: 14th to 23rd March
Opening hours: 10 am to 8 pm / Sundays closed.
Madrid Xanadú – A-5 Motorway, Km. 22, Arroyomolino
Dates: 19th to 22nd March
Opening hours: 10 am to 10 pm
ABOUT THE WE ARE WATER FOUNDATION
The We Are Water Foundation, promoted by the Roca company, has as objectives, on the one hand, to raise awareness amongst the general public and the administrations about the need to promote a new culture of water and, on the other hand, relieve the negative effects related to the lack of hydric resources, through the development of cooperation and aid programmes alongside diverse organisations such as Education without Frontiers, the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Intermón Oxfam and UNICEF.
