Comments on: Water is a Women’s Issue

By: Global Feminist Link Love: April 26 – May 2 « Gender Across Borders

Global Feminist Link Love: April 26 – May 2 « Gender Across Borders — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:58:36 +0000

[...] Water is a Women’s Issue (Pursuit of Harpyness) [...]

By: joytulip

joytulip — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:11:17 +0000

Downed power lines from summer storms were common place where I grew up in rural West Michigan. Without power, the pump for the well didn’t work. One year, when the power was down for several days, we went to the cemetary down the street and used the hand pump to fill 5-gallon buckets and brought them home. After that, my parents bought a generator so we wouldn’t ever have to ‘go through that’ again.

At the very least, I’m going to redouble my efforts at water conservation around the house and check out this WaterAid organization. Thanks for the info!

By: mischiefmanager

mischiefmanager — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:53:42 +0000

When you come down to it, most quality-of-life issues are women’s issues. I wonder if the ‘baggers would appreciate this kind of lack of government “interference” in their lives.

By: baraqiel

baraqiel — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:36:00 +0000

Thank you for bringing our attention to this story, SarahMC. Joining Engineers Without Borders is something I’d been toying with for the future and this seems like a great reason to do so. Basic water pumping, filtration, and purification systems are well-understood technologies and not as expensive as some other infrastructure projects (especially power plants). Hmm. Sometimes I think we get so distracted by the things that are on the cutting edge that it’s easy to forget not everyone has the basics yet.

By: ImTheMarigold

ImTheMarigold — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:51:26 +0000

Thank you for this. I’d also like to add a note about the significant risk of sexual assault that this women face every day, especially in areas of displacement like the camps of Sudan, the DRC, Rwanda, and Chad, where going out for water or fire wood is a direct threat to life and limb. Bandits, soldiers, and other persons attack these women and girls as they attempt to provide for their families. In addition to the numbers of women and girls who would be able to spend that time getting an education, both helping them better provide for their families and make an economic contribution to their communities, safe access to clean water will spare so many families any further traumatic experiences (to say nothing of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and exile of the “spoiled” victim that often follows a rape in these situations).

By: PhDork

PhDork — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:43:14 +0000

Great story, SMC! I don’t get NatGeo, but they do some great reporting.

Also: A hundred gallons of water per day? Really? Dude, I’m going to have to start assessing my usage.

By: bluebears

bluebears — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:06:22 +0000

Really interesting, SarahMC. It’s something we view as so “other” in this country and for good reason and yet,

My college boyfriends mother grew up dirt poor in rural Indiana. They didn’t have indoor plumbing. His older sister remembers going over to her grandparents house and being given a bath and the water had to be pumped and then literally heated on the stove and poured into a tub. This was in the late 70s. His Grandfather physically and sexually abused his Grandmother their entire married life, his mother left the house the day she graduated high school, she had saved up to get a down payment on a place in Fort Wayne where she found a union job. She was able to escape the cycle because of the public school system and unionized labor that gave her a better life. Obviously this is nowhere near as extreme as the situations you mention above but I think it shows that with the proper investments in infrastructure and education people can move forward.

By: BeckySharper

BeckySharper — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:37:15 +0000

So the washing machines in my building have been shut down for 4 weeks while a new water line to the basement is installed. Also, we have not had much hot water because it affects the water feed to the boiler. The lady across the hall and I griped about it in the elevator last night.

Now I feel ashamed I was complaining at all.