Access to Water and Water Relay Race

Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water. Source: Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/chapters/ Picture Source: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/enrichment/africa/resources/index.html

Women carrying water vessels, Guatemala Women carrying water vessels, Guatemala. Photo by André Abbe, UNESCO Source: UN Water Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief In most societies, women have primary responsibility for management of household water supply, sanitation and health. Water is necessary not only for drinking, but also for food production and preparation, care of domestic animals, personal hygiene, care of the sick, cleaning, washing and waste disposal. Because of their dependence on water resources, women have accumulated considerable knowledge about water resources, including location, quality and storage methods. Source: UN Water Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief

Young Girls Carry Water Iman is carrying a tagdurt, a metal water container, on her way to the nearest well to draw water. No one in Tata has running water at home. by Erin Olson Tata-Tagmoute, Morocco (1999) In Morocco the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project of the World Bank aimed to reduce the “burden of girls who were traditionally involved in fetching water” in order to improve their school attendance. In the six provinces where the project is based, it was found that girls’ school attendance increased by 20 per cent in four years, attributed in part to the fact that girls spent less time fetching water. At the same time, convenient access to safe water reduced time spent collecting water by women and young girls by 50 to 90 percent. Source: UN Water Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief Picture Source: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/enrichment/africa/resources/index.html

Gender Inequity In rural Benin girls ages 6–14 spend an average of one hour a day collecting water compared with 25 minutes for their brothers. In Malawi there are large variations in the amount of time allocated for water collection based on seasonal factors, but women consistently spend four to five times longer than men on this task. Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/chapters/

Time spent collecting water (minutes per day) Benin, 1998 Ghana, 1998/99 Women Men Urban 16 6 33 31 Rural 62 44 34 National 45 12 41 Gulnea, 2002/03 Madagascar, 2001 Women Men Urban 10 3 16 Rural 28 6 32 8 National 23 5 27 9 Source: Wodon and Blackden 2006 as sited in: Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/chapters/

A Heavy Load On average, women and girls walk a distance of six kilometers each day, carrying 20 liters of water. 6 km = 3.72822 mi 20 liters of water = 44 pounds Source: UN Water: Water for Life Decade http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/waterforlifebklt-e.pdf

How much water do you use a day? The average American uses 80-100 gallons of water per day. 80-100 gallons of water = 668-835 pounds 80-100 gallons of water = 303-379 liters Online Water Usage Calculators: USGS http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sq3.html Water Footprint http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/WaterFootprintCalculator Source: USGS Water Science for Schools http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html

Water Relay Race Supplies Directions Determining a winner Buckets, water, hand towels Directions Move to a large open space Mark a distance of ten yards Divide into teams of three or four One person on each team should fill a bucket with water and place it on the towel on their head. The team members with the buckets will race to the ten yard mark and back to their group handing the bucket to the next person. The second group member races to the ten yard mark and back, handing off the bucket. This process is repeated until all group members have raced. Determining a winner Take into account the first group done and the amount of water left in the bucket.

Sources UN Water Gender, Water and Sanitation: A Policy Brief http://www.unwater.org/downloads/unwpolbrief230606.pdf Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/chapters/ Photo Source (slides 2 and 4) http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/educators/enrichment/africa/resources/index.html UN Water: Water for Life Decade http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/waterforlifebklt-e.pdf USGS Water Science for Schools http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qahome.html

PowerPoint developed by Mary Robinson Ag Ed Graduate Student University of Minnesota