Gender Equality? Add Water

Apr 9, 2019 | Sonia Lowman
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Imagine having to wait all day to defecate in the dark, just to get the tiniest semblance of privacy—and then getting raped because you went outside alone at night.

Imagine carrying a 10-gallon jerry can of water on your head and walking three miles in the blistering heat to bring it home for your domestic chores—just to do it all over again the next day, and the next, and the next.

Imagine being ridiculed and shamed for having your period—an entirely natural bodily function essential to the survival of our species—and being forced to miss school for nearly a week every month because of it.

For literally billions of people around the world, this is the reality. In our technologically advanced age, with space travel and instantaneous global communications, among other wonders, 2.3 billion people still lack adequate latrines and sanitation facilities. And while a kale smoothie costs $9 in Los Angeles, 1.8 billion people around the world cannot access safe cleaning water. But even worse, a closer look at these shocking numbers reveals disconcerting gender inequities and injustices.