Women in the Developing World - A Potential Potent Force in Political & Climate Stability

This post originated as a referral from my soon-to-be-graduating-from-college son, Tom Simeone, in his ever-expanding activities in International Studies. While it is necessary for him to actually read Spiegel in German, he is thoughtful enough to always forward the English version to me for my consumption.

The link is all about Gender and Climate Change: Poor Women Bear Brunt of Global Warming. The photo in the article shows the silhouette of four women walking from a well – carrying water. This is a common scene throughout most of Africa and one that I would see repeatedly as a Peace Corps Volunteer while living in West Africa.

What are not appreciated from the photo are the instinctive aspects of what appear to be simple processes. Such things as: the gross weight of the clay pots filled with water; the process of raising it to and lowering it from the head; the art of balancing – often for distances of up to 5-10 kilometers (3.5 – 6 miles) each way to and from a well – yes, it is an art that requires considerable endurance; and the often overlooked emotional impact to a woman who might drop and break the pot of water in an unforeseen accident.

To better put this process in perspective, I offer the following excerpt from the West African experience of an organization - World Chlorine Council - that works with improving potable water. The wells of subject were the very same that we were replacing in our Peace Corps program. Their experience is entirely accurate.

Clean Water - Essential to Life
“In sobering contrast to this scene, we also visited Garin Makaka, a village that is scheduled to have a bore well constructed in 2009. The residents currently subsist by using hand-dug traditional wells that are 60-80 meters deep. We spoke with villagers about the daily challenge of meeting a family’s water needs. Drawing the water requires lowering a container down the shaft and drawing it back up, hand-over-hand, by rope.

The village women demonstrated the physical toll of this work, each emphatically trumping the last by displaying increasingly calloused, worn and cracked palms. The water must be carried back to the village, typically in a clay pot holding about 10 liters. (One liter equals one kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. 3.7 liters equals one gallon). The water alone can weigh more than 40 pounds. I picked up a full container to feel its heft and tried to imagine carrying it a kilometer or more through the desert heat. The women and girls carry these on their heads, perhaps making four or five trips each day. For this labor, the families get poor quality water leading to high rates of diarrheal illnesses in the village.”

This experience is just about water. You can imagine how marginalized the poor are in poor countries.

This leads to another focus that can and will make a difference.

Work is being done by many people in many countries to try to improve the quality of life among the most disenfranchised – especially, women. I met Dr. Mishkat Al-Moumin a few years ago. Dr. Al-Moumin is the former Minister of Environment in the interim Iraqi government of 2004-2005, where she set up the entire structure for this new ministry. In this position she led campaigns to support Iraqi people living in environmentally dangerous areas, and initiated awareness and cleaning projects which addressed rehabilitation issues of the Iraqi Marshlands. While in Iraq, she began an NGO: Women and the Environment (WATEO). She now lives in the United States.

“WATEO seeks to raise awareness of environmental and social issues with a special emphasis on women’s interests. We recognize the need to educate women about their role in managing environmental resources to achieve sustainable development. WATEO pledges to empower women to achieve positive environmental change in their families and societies.”

You can see that there is much work to be done and there are plenty of opportunities throughout the developing world whether with a specialty NGO or the United Nations.

There is little doubt that it will take a global effort to make a global impact on global sustainability!