Women and girls are carrying the heaviest burden of the global water crisis by UNESCO, OHCHR, WaterAid, agencies   Mar. 2026   Women and girls are bearing the brunt of water shortages and a lack of sanitation around the world, hindering the economic and social development of poorer countries, the UN has warned.   Women are responsible for collecting water in more than 70% of rural households that do not have access to mains water across the developing world. Women and girls collectively spend 250m hours a day collecting water globally.   The climate crisis is exacerbating the problem, according to a new report from the UN. A 1C rise in temperature reduces incomes in female-headed households by 34% more than in male-headed ones, while also causing women’s weekly labour hours to increase by an average of 55 minutes relative to men’s.   The UN has called on countries to address the imbalance, which is leading to poorer health and worse educational prospects for women, while also affecting food security.   Khaled El-Enany, the director general of Unesco, said: “Ensuring women’s participation in water management and governance is a key driver for progress and sustainable development. We must step up efforts to safeguard women and girls’ access to water. When women have equal access to water, everyone benefits.”   The World Water Development report found that data on women and girls was hard to come by, as many countries and international institutions do not collect statistics broken down by sex.   But the authors said it was clear women have been severely disadvantaged in access to water for health, cooking, sanitation and agriculture, and that countries were moving too slowly to address the issues.   Alvaro Lario, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the chair of UN-Water, which produced the report with Unesco, said: “We need women and men to manage water side by side as a common good that benefits the whole of society.”   Poor sanitation disproportionately affects women, with an estimated 10 million adolescent girls in 40 lower-income countries surveyed in one study missing school, work or social activities as a result of lack of toilets between 2016 and 2022.   In 2024, the latest year for which data is available, more than 2.1 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water and 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation.   Women are also under-represented in decisions made over water rights relating to agricultural land, which are often linked to property rights. Women are discriminated against in land tenure rights in many countries, with men taking ownership of twice the amount of land.   Fewer than one in five people who work in water utilities are women, a separate survey of 28 developing countries found.   Helen Hamilton, the head of public health policy at the charity WaterAid, said poor access to water and sanitation in clinics meant women were dying unnecessarily in childbirth, and women were being exposed to gender-based violence when having to walk long distances to collect water.   “Today’s report lays bare a stark injustice: women and girls are carrying the heaviest burden of the global water crisis,” she said. “Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are not luxuries: they are the foundation of health, education and economic opportunity.”   When the problems facing women are recognised, whole communities can benefit, according to the World Vision charity.   The organisation drilled a well in Rumate, in rural Kenya, where women used to have to walk up to four hours a day to collect water. Women helped drill the well and build the road, and have formed savings groups, established a water committee and started small businesses.   Their children are healthier – no longer suffering from malnutrition linked to unsafe water – and mothers are able to spend more time with them.   Parvin Ngala, the global director for water at World Vision, said: “Harmful social norms often fail to value the time and effort women invest in securing water and exclude them from decision-making. The economic consequences are real: women’s opportunities to earn an income are almost impossible.”   Mar. 2026   Where water doesn’t flow, equality doesn’t grow – challenging global patriarchy this World Water Day, by Lyla Mehta, Alan Nicol. (IDS)   The 2026 campaign on World Water Day’s focuses on Water and Gender – ‘where water flows, equality grows’. While some progress has been achieved across a range of gender indicators spanning education, health and public participation, the situation around WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) is still marked by deep inequalities with women and girls disproportionately affected – and this reflects the persistence of global patriarchy.   More than 2 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water. In households without piped water, women and girls are made to be responsible for about 70–80 per cent of water collection trips worldwide, taking anything from 30 minutes to four hours daily. This time can instead usefully be spent on education, productive activities or even leisure and rest, but they don’t have the choice.   The situation is even more dire for sanitation with 3.4 billion people lacking access to safely managed sanitation. All this affects women’s and girl’s dignity, safety, security and the privacy and comfort needed for dignified menstrual health management. At the same time, there is poor progress on women’s economic participation.   These patterns have remained remarkably persistent despite improvements in water and sanitation infrastructure. The sheer time and labour required for poor women and girls around WASH activities, combined with gendered inequalities and power imbalances under the persistence of patriarchy not only directly affect girls’ enrolment in education but inevitably diminishes their capacity for productive economic activity, the net impact of which worldwide is a huge dent in human development progress.   Not only that, but the apparent normalisation of wars and genocides wrought largely by men means almost daily violations of international humanitarian law including the weaponisation of water and sanitation infrastructure as a target of attack. Most recently, the United States’ bombing of a freshwater desalinsation plant in Iran and retaliation by Iran on another desalination plant in Bahrain set a dangerous new precedent.   When water and sanitation infrastructure become fair game in war, as we’ve seen in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine in the last few years, existing gender inequalities around water and sanitation mean women and girls suffer most, compounding risks including sexual violence.   What we’re seeing real-time and online is something even more worrying. That is the resurgence of more explicit patriarchy desiring control over women’s lives and subjugation into traditional roles away from public life. From the slashing of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes to the rollback of reproductive rights across the world from the USA to Chile, the resurgence of ‘toxic masculinity’ is forcing gender rights, feminism and equality off the agenda and they are equated with pejorative notions of ‘wokeism.’   Some institutions are already reframing debates in response. For instance, the World Bank is increasingly framing gender as about economic activity and jobs, rather than about rights. This is reflected in their new Water Mission implementation strategy that refers to employment but only mentions gender six times and women four times even though the gross inequalities in labour power and economic effects are, as stated above, so vast.   The gender backlash and reductionism in rights framings helps reinforce stereotypes and accepted norms, including the gendered division of labour in water collection, rather than confronting this more forcefully – and, at a minimum, asking why this is the case rather than accepted as a given.   If views persist that women and girls are responsible for water-related subsistence tasks, it ignores specific needs around sanitation and menstrual hygiene and increases male domination in decision-making and water management. Which is precisely what patriarchy seeking to achieve – domination and subjugation.   A year ago, Prime Minister Keir Starmer cut the UK aid budget by about 40 per cent. These cuts have been devastating for water and sanitation progress in some of the world’s poorest and most war-torn countries with direct and lasting consequences for women and girls. The cuts particularly impact countries like Sudan, Ethiopia and Palestine, already reeling from largely male-driven wars, conflicts and genocide.   It is estimated that around 12 million people will be denied access to clean water and sanitation as a result. These cuts directly affect gender equality because reduced access to water and sanitation impacts schooling, being at work and increases the risk of gender-based violence.   The UK justifies the cuts as a way to move away from direct aid around WASH to strengthening capabilities and partnerships. But these partnerships between the UK and Global South countries such as Nigeria focusing on growth, jobs and reducing aid dependency can backfire as more and more people’s health deteriorate, including more women suffering from ill health and long-term illnesses.   Ultimately, a waning collective effort to support gender equality in WASH provision opens the door to long-term decline in gender rights and economic development. Additionally, the dismantling of USAID is already having devastating consequences for gender equality and women’s health. Just when greater focus is needed on WASH projects to ensure we are not backsliding on gender rights, aid is being cut.   In sum, persistent inequalities, the gender backlash, illegal and forever wars and aid cuts lacking a moral compass have diluted global collective action on gender inequality. The least policymakers could do would be to achieve and maintain leadership that realises human rights for all in WASH provision, a substantial rationale for which has to be a big- ticket focus on the social and economic empowerment of women and girls. Any other direction would be disastrous, enabling patriarchy and misogyny to grow even deeper roots in global society.   http://www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/where-water-doesnt-flow-equality-doesnt-grow-challenging-global-patriarchy-this-world-water-day/ http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000397505 http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/water/statements/worldwaterday-22m-2026-stm.docx http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-water-and-sanitation/annual-reports http://washmatters.wateraid.org/publications/born-without-water http://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/19/women-and-girls-bearing-brunt-of-water-shortages-globally-un-warns http://www.ipsnews.net/2026/03/80-percent-of-rural-households-without-direct-water-access-world-water-report/ http://reliefweb.int/report/world/when-political-will-becomes-missing-piece-effective-climate-action Visit the related web page
	Justice systems meant to uphold rights and the rule of law are failing women and girls everywhere by UN Women   Mar. 2026   On 8 March 2026, International Women’s Day, UN Women issues a global alert: Justice systems meant to uphold rights and the rule of law are failing women and girls everywhere. Women globally hold just 64 per cent of the legal rights of men, exposing them to discrimination, violence, and exclusion at every stage of their lives.   This is one of the findings of the new United Nations Secretary-General’s report, “Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls”. The same report reveals that in over half of the world’s countries – 54 per cent – rape is still not defined on the basis of consent, meaning a woman can be raped and the law may not recognize it as a crime.   A girl can still be forced to marry, by national law, in nearly 3 out of 4 countries. And in 44 per cent of countries, the law does not mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value, meaning women can still legally be paid less for the same work.   “When women and girls are denied justice, the damage goes far beyond any single case. Public trust erodes, institutions lose legitimacy, and the rule of law itself is weakened. A justice system that fails half the population cannot claim to uphold justice at all,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous.   As backlash against longstanding commitments on gender equality intensifies, violations of the rights of women and girls are accelerating, fueled by a global culture of impunity, spanning from courts to online spaces to conflict.   Laws are being rewritten to restrict the freedoms of women and girls, silence their voices, and enable abuse without consequence. As technology outpaces regulation, women and girls face growing digital violence in a climate of impunity where perpetrators are rarely held accountable.   In conflicts, rape continues to be used as a weapon of war, with reported cases of sexual violence rising by 87 per cent in just two years.   The UN Secretary General’s report also shows that progress is possible: 87 per cent of countries have enacted domestic violence legislation, and more than 40 countries have strengthened constitutional protections for women and girls over the past decade. But laws alone are not enough.   Discriminatory social norms – stigma, victim-blaming, fear, and community pressure – continue to silence survivors and obstruct justice, allowing even the most extreme forms of violence, including femicide, to go unpunished.   This International Women’s Day 2026, under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,” UN Women calls for urgent and decisive action: end impunity, defend the rule of law, and deliver equality – in law, in practice, and in every sphere of life – for all women and girls.   “Now is the moment to stand up, show up, and speak up for rights, for justice, and for action – so that every woman and girl can live safely, speak freely, and live equally,” stressed UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/international-womens-day http://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/case-open-justice-for-all-women-and-girls http://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/explainer/what-justice-means-to-women-and-how-to-deliver-it http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/remarks-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-csw-70-education-justice-side http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/03/1167081 http://docs.un.org/en/E/CN.6/2026/3 http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2026/03/csw70-conclusions http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/03/states-back-un-roadmap-womens-rights-access-justice http://www.careinternational.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/womens-openness-to-speak-about-politics-in-public-has-dropped-to-lowest-levels-since-1997-new-analysis/ Visit the related web page
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