Water for Women, Women for Water

Apr 22, 2023 | Tinebeb Yohannes, The Reporter
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Public opinion says Ethiopia has an abundance of water—the “water tower for Africa”. For many women in this country, this is becoming increasingly hard to believe. In the rural areas of Ethiopia, many women and girls spend hours a day walking long distances to get water for their families. This robs women of time to earn an income, rest, and spend time with their families while preventing girls from going to school or doing other things children do, like play.

In the cities too, women who do most of the household chores, such as cooking, washing dishes, and bathing children, often face the burden of managing the inconsistent or unpredictable flow of water from the city tap.

Women are connected to water, for better or worse. For a girl living in a rural area, if there is a drought within the first 1000 days of her life, she will likely suffer from its impact for the rest of her life, and her children are more likely to suffer from stunting and poor health as well. The current drought in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa, which is largely displacing women and children, is a devastating reminder of this.