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World Social Science Report 2016

Challenging intersecting inequalities around access to water

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P O S T C A R D

Around the world, inequalities in access to water remain a critical daily issue of survival. Challenging cultural values, gendered roles and power structures is critical to reducing intersecting inequalities of access to water. In turn, these inequalities are exacerbated in many places by climate change. Climate variability via severe drought or flooding is predicted to bring about significant changes to food production systems in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to millions of people being threatened by hunger if the temperature rises by between 2.5 and 4.0 °Celsius. In this scenario, access to water is critical for survival.

However, marginalized groups, and women and children from within these groups, particularly in rural communities, suffer from appallingly low levels of access to safe water. They continue to face major challenges; walking 3–4 km daily to public water points, carrying 20–25 litre containers on their heads, and having to stand and wait in long queues. There is an urgent need for a collective voice calling for dignity, compassion and solidarity for access to water for all.

In Siavonga, Zambia, in a village known as Sanjemuleke, women wake up at 5 a.m. and queue for water. This can take up to five hours and may not guarantee that they will access water, as it is not shared equally but on a first come, first served basis.

In the Chirundu District, in Lusitu Village, the Siavonga River has dried up and people rely on digging scoop holes in the dry river bed. Pregnant women going to deliver their babies have to bring their own water to be accepted onto the maternity ward in the local clinic.

Water from the scoop holes makes our children sick and when we go to the clinic sometimes there is no medicine to treat them (from a focus group discussion with women, Namasheshe Village, Zambia, August 2015).

The water from the scoop holes is never enough … we have to ration how we draw water (from a focus group discussion with women and men, Chinkome Village, Zambia, August 2015).

Our research in Zambia and Malawi suggests that such inequalities regarding access to water are deeply rooted in cultural and gendered inequalities and power structures.

It would be good to see more men helping us with this chore because the 20-litre containers are heavy to carry (from a focus group discussion with women, Chitete Village, Zambia, August 2015).

‘Getting water is women’s work – a man will never do this job if he wants to keep his reputation.’ The reasons for this, described by Ruth Mwyene, a farmer from Malawi attending the World Social Sciences Forum in Durban in 2015, come down to ‘cultural values and traditional belief systems. Men are “providers” of the household with women’s roles being described as “caring” for the house: cooking, collecting water, looking after children.’

Feedback from poor and marginalized groups in these communities also indicates their feelings of being helpless and worthless, which implies being seen as low-class people by the headman, and considering themselves abandoned by society. There is also a sense of being cut off from government interest as if they are an ‘insignificant’ people.

In this village, we live like orphans. We are like refugees in our own country. The government doesn’t seem to care about us and our welfare. They only think about us during elections when they come to beg for our votes (from a focus group discussion with women and men, Suluba Village, Zambia, August 2015).

28. Challengingintersectinginequalitiesaroundaccesstowater

Tahseen Jafry, Blessings Chinsinga, Lilian Zimba and Ted Scanlon

This article features in the World Social Science Report 2016, UNESCO and the ISSC, Paris. Click here to access the complete Report.

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PART II • THE CONSEQUENCES OF INEQUALITIES Chapter 3 Consequences and interactions of multiple inequalitiesWorld

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Challenging such deep-seated social inequalities will require a collective voice. Our evidence from dialogue and discussion with marginalized farmers in Malawi and Zambia suggests that this voice will require demands for greater access to water supply services, but also demands for dignity, compassion and solidarity, with the aim of reducing deeper forms of intersecting inequalities.

¢¢ Tahseen Jafry (UK) is director and professor at the Centre for Climate Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University.

¢¢ Blessings Chinsinga (Malawi) is deputy director and professor at the Centre for Social Research (CSR), a research arm of the Faculty of Social Science, and a professor at the Department of Political and Administrative Studies, Chancellor College, University of Malawi.

¢¢ Lilian Zimba (Zambia) is a lecturer in the School of Education, Social Sciences and Technology, University of Lusaka, Zambia.

¢¢ Ted Scanlon (UK) is an educator at the Centre for Climate Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Acknowledgements

This contribution is based on research under the Water for ALL project. For more details see www.gcu.ac.uk/climatejustice/research/researchthemeprojects/waterforall/

The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Scottish Government’s Climate Justice Fund. The views given are those of the authors and not of the Scottish Government.

This article features in the World Social Science Report 2016, UNESCO and the ISSC, Paris. Click here to access the complete Report.

This article features in the World Social Science Report 2016, UNESCO and the ISSC, Paris.

The World Social Science Report 2016 was published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), 1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France.

© ISSC, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and UNESCO, 2016

Original title: World Social Science Report 2016 – Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World – ISBN 978-92-3-100164-2

This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en).

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO, the ISSC or the IDS concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The World Social Science Report 2016 editorial team is responsible for the choice of articles and the overall presentation. Each author is responsible for the facts contained in his/her article and the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO, the ISSC or the IDS and do not commit these Organizations.

The World Social Science Report 2016 is a collaborative effort made possible by the support and contributions of many people. It was financed by generous contributions from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UNESCO, as part of its Framework Agreement with the ISSC, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), as well as the European Science Foundation (ESF), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Research Council of Norway, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and the Swedish Research Council.

Graphic and cover design: Corinne Hayworth

Typeset and printed by: UNESCO

The World Social Science Report 2016 was prepared by the ISSC and the IDS and co-published with UNESCO

The Report is available online at: en.unesco.org/wssr2016 Hard copies are available from UNESCO Publishing: http://publishing.unesco.org/details.aspx?&Code_Livre=5160&change=E

This report should be cited as follows: ISSC, IDS and UNESCO (2016), World Social Science Report 2016, Challenging Inequalities: Pathways to a Just World, UNESCO Publishing, Paris.

The Report is supported by The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

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