Water is Life, Sanitation is Dignity

Press Release—The Solidarity for African Women’s Rights coalition calls on African heads of states and government to respect the right to water and sanitation of women and girls, and to ensure gender equality in the decision-making and management of water supply and sanitation systems as guaranteed in the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.

“Water is life, sanitation is dignity”, Judge Moroa Tsoka, Johannesburg High Court.

Article 3 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Protocol) states that “every woman shall have the right to dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition and protection of her human and legal rights.” Yet, millions of African women and girls suffer disproportionately for lack of basic services and violation of the right to water. Water is fundamental to human life, health and dignity. The right to water is therefore a basic human right for all. Moreover, women’s access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education underpins progress and development in Africa.

“Access to clean water and sanitation does not only improve the health of a family, but it also provides an opportunity for girls to go to school, and for women to use their time more productively than in fetching water thereby contributing more to the economy.” Roselynn Musa, FEMNET

Goal seven of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) calls on governments to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation”. However, over half of Africa’s women and girls have no access to clean water and sanitation. According to UNICEF, “in rural Africa, 19 per cent of women spend more than one hour on each trip to fetch water, an exhausting and often dangerous chore that robs them of the chance to work and learn”.

The UN Human Development Report (HDR) for 2006, “Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis” noted that poor governance was at the root of water scarcity and lack of access to sanitation, asserting that the “global crisis in water (…) reinforces the obscene inequalities of life that divide rich and poor”.

During the African Union Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) coalition calls on African heads of states and government to respect the right to water and sanitation of women and girls, as is guaranteed by the Protocol on the Rights of African Women and in conformity with their commitment to the MDGs, as well as to ensure gender equality in the decision-making and management of water supply and sanitation systems .

Further the SOAWR coalition calls on African policy makers to ensure ratification, without harmful reservations, of the Protocol in their respective States, and to guarantee national domestication and implementation of its obligations.

“The African Union Protocol on the Rights of Women and the United Nations Millennium Development goals have given Africa leaders standards that they can adopt to ensure that the right to water and proper sanitation is assured to all citizens and most importantly to women who are the caretakers of homes and the users of water and sanitation for the benefit of their families and society as a whole. African leaders can no longer afford to ignore the voice of women.” Catherine Irura, Equality Now


For more information, please contact: Caroline Muthoni Muriithi – 018 680 3569

SOAWR is a regional network of 29 civil society organisations and development partners across Africa working towards the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in Africa.

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