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Disasters related to too much too little water affect women and men in different ways and to different degrees in varied contexts across the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH). Therefore, an increase in the magnitude and frequency of natural disasters will also have different implications for men and women (CIDA, 2002). For example, extreme events may trigger out-migration from local communities and villages due to resource shortages (ibid.). Often, when livelihoods are destroyed and productive assets are eroded, men tend to migrate out in search of income generating opportunities. This in-turn intensifies women’s workloads as they struggle to add the work that men used to manage to their own daily workloads (UNDP, 2011). Women’s workloads are further intensified because of increased difficulties in accessing resources, in particular, fuel wood, food, fodder and water (CIDA, 2002). The effects of men’s out-migration on women’s autonomy and freedom of movement can also be complex. It can potentially lead to greater opportunities for women to step outside previously constrained gender roles, to take on new livelihood options, and increased functions in the public domain (UNDP, 2011; CIDA, 2002). In some cases, it can also lead to women’s out-migration (ibid., ibid.).


The negative impacts on women’s workloads and livelihoods can be attributed to the existing gender division of labour, which are further exacerbated by changes in crop and livestock production, detrimental effects on both men’s and women’s incomes, and flooding and erosion in settlements on low-lying land and wetlands (CIDA, 2002). Women’s usufruct rights to resources can also diminish or disappear as access to land natural resources dwindles and competition increases with climate change and related disasters (ibid.).


Although greater numbers of women reportedly die or are affected in most disasters in the HKH, this is not invariably the case in all contexts around the world. In other parts world, such as Latin America, more men or boys die because socially constructed roles promote greater risks due to risky behaviours or because men or boys are disconnected from society’s protective mechanisms (UNDP, 2011). Thus, varied situations around the globe suggest that “women and girls are not inherently vulnerable; they are made so by inequitable social structures and gender-blind attitudes and behaviours” (ibid., 9). As discussed further below, women and girls are more likely to become subject to trafficking and gender-based and sexual violence after a disaster. This is particularly true when members


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of displaced households are living in overcrowded and under- resourced transitional housing where women lack privacy and protection provided by social networks (Brody et al., 2008:7).


GENDER DIMENSIONS IN TOO LITTLE WATER – DROUGHT


There are not only differences between men and women in vulnerability to coping with climate change, there are differences in how women and men perceive and experience extreme events of too little water (ICIMOD, 2009a). Temperature rises may lead to too little water, soil moisture deficits, droughts, fire and possible pest outbreaks, which are believed to decrease crop yields in tropical, subtropical regions and many mid-latitude regions (Kasperson and Kasperson 2001, Regmi and Adikhari 2007). These may also lead to severe water scarcity leading to the extinction of biodiversity resources or the migration of species to higher elevations (Kasperson and Kasperson 2001, Brody et al. 2008).


Some challenges that women in particular may face when water resources are depleted include problems with sanitation, health, hygiene, and safety. They often have greater workloads with having to walk or travel long distances to access water for household consumption (drinking, cooking, childcare, washing, etc.). Women may also have to walk and travel further for productive work in agriculture, livestock rearing, etc. If women have to trek longer distances for potable water and fuel, there is even more strain on the mountain communities, women’s work burdens (Ebi and Uma, no date; Mitchell et al., 2007) and health related risks and problems. Moreover, when women must spend more time on productive and reproductive tasks, it limits their time that could be spent on income generation, alternative livelihood activities, training, education, participating in institutional and governing fora, engaging in social and developmental opportunities and maintaining their health. It reinforces already skewered customary gendered divisions of labour. Increased workloads for women also means that parents or guardians take girls out of school in order for them to carry out household and agricultural tasks (Baten and Khan, 2010; Brody et al., 2008).


A recent ICIMOD study, on too much and too little water in the HKH, illustrates that women and men experience and perceive water stresses differently (ICIMOD, 2009a). In the hills of Sankhuwasabha in Nepal, shortages of water are becoming a


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