Women and Water

In the Dominican Republic, Rotarians have helped bring 19,000 bio-sand filters to about 300 communities, reaching 100,000 residents. The simple and inexpensive filters have been found to reduce diarrhea by up to 45 percent. But it’s not only individuals’ health that the filters are improving, says Sara Lucena, a member of the Rotary Club of Puerto Plata Isabel de Torres, Puerto Plata.  It’s the lives of entire families.

Lucena says that because children are not getting sick as often, she sees mothers having the time to work or go to school, which will help them lift themselves and their families out of poverty. “It’s a circle. It’s not just health,” she says. “The filter is a tool for changing their lives. If I can control the health of my family, I can control the life of my family.”

In their traditional roles in many parts of the world, women use water for preparing food, bathing, and washing. It’s up to them to find and collect the water they use daily, even when it’s scarce. Women in northern Ghana walk more than 3 miles round trip to rivers or other sources, then carry 45-65 pounds of water on their heads back to their homes, according to Lamisi Mbillah, who spoke at a water conference in March hosted by District 6290 (Ontario, Canada; Michigan, USA).  Collectively, women in sub-Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water – equivalent to a year’s worth of work for all of France, according to a United Nations report.

“If women are half of the world’s population, we have to step up and do something about it,” says Mbillah, who was Miss Ghana in 2005 and was honored with Miss World’s Beauty with a Purpose Award for her activism. “It is a basic human right.”

This article comes from Rotary’s Global Outlook newsletter, which spotlights the work of Rotary clubs on the international stage.  To read more from Global Outlook, click here.