ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Millions of Women Still Trek Farther for Water

By James Hall Reprint | | Print |

James Hall

MBABANE, Aug 30 2003 (IPS) - The link between environmental degradation and worsening poverty levels in African nations has left the realm of anecdotal evidence and now has the solidity of hard fact, thanks to data collected in a new Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"Many environmental problems stem from poverty – often contributing to a downward spiral in which poverty exacerbates environmental degradation and environmental degradation exacerbates poverty," the report noted.

The UN data, assembled from national statistic and environmental groups throughout Africa, also clarifies the link between overpopulation and environmental endangerment.

"Social issues like gender empowerment also play a role in the environment-poverty link," said Shelia Dube, a researcher with Women in Law in Southern Africa.

"When women have more control over child bearing, and are not subject to male-biased customs or even national laws, then fertility diminishes, along with infant mortality. Pressure eases on the environment. The latter works to the advantage of ensuring adequate agricultural land and natural resources, thus abetting prosperity," Dube told IPS.

The UN report agrees. "The relationship between poverty and environmental resources also has a strong gender component. Poor women and girls are hurt disproportionately by environmental degradation, often because they are responsible for collecting fuel, fodder and water," the report said.

In Africa, women spend up to three hours a day just fetching water, expending more than a third of their daily food intact, because deforestation forces them to walk farther and spend more time and energy collecting fuel wood.

Data bears out on broad scale the individual struggles caused by deforestation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, land covered by forests has decreased in the past decade from 24 percent to 21.9 percent in dry Botswana, from 56 percent to 51.3 percent in tropical Cameroon, and from 33.1 percent to 27.8 percent in Ghana. Faring worse was Zambia (53.5 percent down to 42 percent), Zimbabwe (57.5 percent to 49.2 percent) and Liberia (38.1 percent to 31 percent).

"In human terms, that means millions of African women are trekking farther and farther for water, while untold number of birds and mammals are having their habitats destroyed, and farmers are losing agricultural land as topsoil is washed away by flash floods because protective forest watersheds have disappeared," said environmentalist Thabo Zuma of South Africa.

Data can be misleading if not properly interpreted. Environmentalists in Swaziland noted that the UNDP study shows land covered by forest in their country actually increased from 27 percent in 1990 to 30.3 percent in 2000.

"This was not from a rehabilitation of the natural environment. It all came from new plantings at commercial forests. In some cases, these forests displace natural wilderness areas," Jabulani Ngwenya of the Swaziland environmental group Green Cross told IPS.

"Meanwhile, the native forests are being cut down for firewood. Swaziland has no population policy, and the growing numbers of rural poor are devastating their areas to find fuel and arable land," Ngwenya said.

Life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest in the world. The average person in the region lives 38.7 years, compared to 55.5 years in all of Asia, and 58 years in Latin America and the Caribbean. (The worldwide life expectancy is 56 years.)

Environmentalists in Africa say AIDS is a principal cause for declining life expectancies on the continent, but environmental degradation plays a role.

Polluted streams and rivers are particularly lethal in areas where residents depend on these as their primary source of water, supplemented by rainfall when and if it is available.

Statistics on the number of people with access to clean and safe water are not available from several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. When data is available, the picture is mixed.

In the past decade, conditions have improved slightly for the people of Cote d’Ivoire, 69 percent of whom had access to good water in 1990 while 72 percent do now, as well as for people in Malawi (from 43 percent to 44 percent), Namibia (from 63 percent to 67 percent), and Zimbabwe (69 percent to 73 percent).

Progress was better in Burundi (from 67 percent to 77 percent), Cameroon (32 percent to 39 percent), Kenya (31 percent to 42 percent), Nigeria (37 percent to 49 percent) and Uganda (40 percent to 47 percent). Improvement was no less than remarkable in the Central African Republic (from 35 percent to 57 percent), Ghana (36 percent to 62 percent) and Zambia (28 percent to 48 percent). These nations’ commitment to improving water supplies was reflected in national legislation promulgated during the past decade.

In only one African country, Ethiopia has water security worsened. Only 12 percent of the population of that largely desert country enjoys a sustainable supply of decent water, compared to 17 percent a decade ago.

Environmentalists welcome the national rankings and the data collection that went into them.

"How Africa is performing with environmental preservation should not be a matter of opinion, but of quantifiable analysis," said Green Cross’ Ngwenya.

"The more data we have, the better we are able to assess the success of our efforts, and the more credible our arguments will be to national legislatures for more stringent environmental protection laws," he said.

The UNDP report stresses the need to target the poor for protection against environmental degradation.

"Poor people are the most vulnerable to environmental shocks and stresses, including floods, prolonged droughts and the emerging effects of global climate change. They are the least capable of coping with such shocks and stresses," the report noted.