Let’s stop WASH violence against women – Prof. Mariwah

On July 28, 2024, 7:20 PM

Professor Simon Mariwah has appealed to the government and other stakeholders to help stop Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) violence against women. 

He said women became more suspectable to sexual abuse when WASH facilities were unfriendly, unsafe, unhygienic and inaccessible due to biological, sociological and socio-cultural restrictions.

The Professor was speaking at the maiden forum of the Women in WASH (WinWASH) and the launch of its network on the theme, “Gender mainstreaming for inclusive WASH service delivery in Ghana”.

He said girls and women unlike their male counterparts could not attend to nature’s call anywhere thus, the need to provide facilities at vantage points, including marketplaces, police checkpoints, by the roadside to make life relatively comfortable for them.

Professor Mariwah said the situation worsened when the females were pregnant or menstruating.

Citing SDG 5.2, Professor Mariwah said authorities should seek to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres.

He said though women represented half the world’s population according to UN Women (2018) and the Human Development Report’s (2022), there was almost nowhere in the world where girls and boys, women and girls were equal.

Professor Mariwah citing UNICEF, WaterAid and WSUP,2018, women and girls with disabilities face double the disadvantages as where toilets do exist are rarely designed and built to be accessible and safe for them, constituting to abusing their rights to accessing WASH facilities.

Quoting a UNICEF document 2015, he said globally, 300 million girls and women menstruated daily therefore not having clean water and hygiene facilities would be a great challenge to them.

Supporting his appeal with figures, he said women and girls spent 200 million hours every day in search of water which made them economically unproductive as they spent hours only on the search and not featuring on the labour market.

He called on the Government and other stakeholders to help achieve gender equality and equality with females in mind at the local and national levels concerning WASH.

He said achieving gender mainstreaming was a collaborative effort, a human rights issue, a fulfilment of the SDG 5, among others.

He encouraged the empowerment of women in dealing with WASH challenges, stressing that women should be given financial, logistical and technical support in that regard.

He advised women against the use of emotion, confrontation to change the existing gender narrative and norms, rather they should use dialogue to achieve their goals.

Madam Nora Ollennu, Founder and Convenor of WinWASH, called on stakeholders to intensify advocacy in mainstreaming gender in WASH and WASH systems, strengthening to address the inequalities in achieving universal access.

Participants asked for a deliberate, collaborative, participatory and pushing hard, aside the policies to get those challenges resolved.

Also in attendance were traditional leaders, among other stakeholders.