Full Report

FACT SHEET EWASH Advocacy Task Force Women's Access to Water and Sanitation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory State parties "shall ensure to women the right: To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relation to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communication." The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1981), Article 14 (h). Women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) are disproportionately affected by lack of access to sanitation and adequate quantities of safe water. Among women's regular household chores are the provision and use of water for a number of purposes. The need to travel distances from the home to collect water consumes valuable time. Women are often primarily responsible for caring for children who become sick due to unclean water or inadequate sanitation. Lack of women's participation in Samira Miqdam, age 56, lives in the Gaza Strip's Khan decision-making Younis refugee camp with her husband and ten children. relating to water and sanitation can mean that their voices are not heard and their needs are not prioritised. Samira receives water from the municipality, which is too saline for drinking, two or three times a week. The rest of the time she has to purchase water at four times this cost. How the Inadequate Water Supply Impacts Women Water shortages in the OPT significantly impact When water flows from the municipality, Samira stores it in plastic containers, bottles and even cooking pots, because she does not have the required water pump to fill the house's reservoirs. "Sometimes, municipal water comes during the night which forces me to stay awake in order to fill the empty women's ability to carry out household chores. containers we use for storing water," Samira says. The irregular supply of water increases She uses the municipal water only for washing and women's workloads and forces them to develop cleaning. "I suffer from renal calculus because I used to a range of coping strategies.1 drink water from the tap," she explains. The salty water makes Samira's household chores more difficult because soap does not interact well with saline water. "I am sick and tired of this situation," she says. "I need to have running water every day. . . I feel paralyzed when there is no water." 1 Oxfam GB, A field study on public health and gender in the Gaza Strip (2010). 8 8 FACT SHEET EWASH Advocacy Task Force These coping strategies include: storing water in small containers and bottles in anticipation of shortages; An adequate amount of safe water is necessary to prevent death from dehydration, to reduce limiting use of water to the most essential needs; the risk of water-related diseases and to washing by hand instead of using washing machines; provide for consumption, cooking, personal and domestic hygienic requirements. reducing the number of times children are bathed; and using jerry cans of water instead of running tap water to UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights General Comment (UNCESCR) 15 (2002) wash the dishes. Because of breaks in water service, women are often forced to suspend their household chores until service is restored. As a result, women feel added pressure during these times of intense work.2 Water shortages mean that women's workload dramatically increases in summer months. The amount of water required makes cleaning and maintaining toilets difficult. In areas that are not connected to water networks, particularly the rural areas of the West Bank, women often travel long distances to collect water. They are unable to access the nearest water filling points as a result of military outposts, bypass roads, closed military areas, settlements and the Wall. One woman from a village in the Jordan Valley estimates that every day she carries 16 gallons of water for more than a kilometre.3 Besides being exhausting, carrying such heavy weight can cause serious health problems. A woman covers a cooking pot after filling it with water for storage, Az-Zawaida (Photo credit: ACF) Women in Bedouin communities are often responsibility for excavating water cisterns to collect and store rainwater. These time-consuming duties can prevent women from engaging in other activities, such as formal education and paid work. In addition to collecting water, Palestinian women are usually responsible for maintaining family health and hygiene. Lack of safe water in the OPT means that women and their children are vulnerable to disease. Water in the Gaza Strip has a high concentration of nitrate and chloride. As a result, 20% of Gazan families have at least one child below the age of five suffering from diarrhoea.4 Water contamination increases the risk of birth defects and miscarriages.5 Due to lack of potable water, bottle-fed infants are at much higher risk of waterborne diseases and nutrition deficiencies than their breastfed counterparts. A woman excavates a water cistern in a Bedouin community in South Hebron Hills 2 Information collected by EWASH ATF during focus group meetings in Gaza Strip. 3 Oxfam, Improving water and sanitation (n.d). 4 B'Tselem, Water supplies in Gaza unfit for drinking (2010). 5 See Environmental Working Group http://www.ewg.org/node/7712 FACT SHEET EWASH Advocacy Task Force In the West Bank, faecal coliform contamination has been found in water tanks in communities not connected to water networks. In such communities there is high incidence of waterborne diseases, including diarrhoea, hepatitis, fever and vomiting.6 The increased prevalence of waterborne diseases affects women's mental health, as they become anxious about their children's wellbeing.7 How Inadequate Sanitation Impacts Women Almost two million people live without adequate sanitation services in the OPT.8 Only 44% of Palestinians in the OPT are connected to sanitation networks, while the rest use cesspits or septic tanks.9 Lack of access to safe, affordable and culturally-acceptable sanitation facilities has a disproportionate impact on women. Specific needs or problems include: inappropriate facilities for women and girls when they are menstruating (global research has shown that this is a significant factor in discouraging girls from attending school); safety, privacy, dignity and protection issues for women and girls when sanitation facilities are not physically accessible; Mariam lives in Um Zatonah village in the Hebron Hills area of the West Bank. Mariam must carefully manage the water collected for her family of six, which includes two daughters with disabilities. increased workload for women when children become Mariam's family relies on 20 to 30 liters of water sick due to waterborne illnesses such as hepatitis, skin per person per day, which is below the WHO infection, parasites, typhoid and diarrhoea, many of recommended amount to maintain good health which are caused by a lack of adequate sewage and hygiene. The water comes by tanker or disposal and treatment; and Mariam and her children must use a donkey to increased workload for women as they clean and carry the jerry cans to their home. The family lives empty cesspits, and clear dirt that enters their houses in a small cave with tents and a portable latrine from the cesspits. provided by an international NGO. A sewage network installed in the Gaza community of al-Zarqaa, resulted in positive changes for families, especially women, found a recent survey by Oxfam GB. These positive changes included: reduced daily chores, less conflict in the household, improved quality of life (no more bad smell), and better relations with neighbours; significant decline in health problems and wastewater-related hazards (especially for children); time and money saved by the family allowing for greater focus on children's education; and improved social relations in the neighbourhood (due to decline in tensions around wastewater).10 6 7 8 9 10 CISP, Study of water and health-related needs in Bedouin communities of Jericho (2009). Information collected by EWASH ATF during focus group meetings in Gaza Strip. Palestinian Hydrology Group, Sanitation (2010). Ibid. Oxfam GB, Gender analysis and recommendations for Oxfam's public health programmes in Gaza (4 October, 2010), internal document. 8 8 FACT SHEET EWASH Advocacy Task Force Legal Obligations to Provide Women with Water and Sanitation Women's right to access adequate quantities of safe, affordable water and safe, appropriate sanitation has been explicitly recognized in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1981). The rights to water and sanitation have also been recognized as essential elements of the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (1966). Israel has ratified both treaties and is obliged to realize the provisions contained within them in all areas under its jurisdiction/effective control, including the OPT. Palestinian authorities, while not the duty bearers, also have the responsibility to ensure that women have adequate access to water and sanitation services. They can do this by developing and applying legislation, policy or programming. Recommendations Israel should abide by its obligations under international law and take immediate measures to ensure that girls, boys, women and men in the OPT have adequate access to water and sanitation services. The Palestinian National Authority should ensure that planning for water and sanitation service delivery adopts a gender-sensitive approach. Relevant agencies should study the impact of the lack of adequate water and sanitation in the lives of women in the OPT, given the knowledge gap in this area. This fact sheet was produced by the EWASH Advocacy Task Force: a sub-committee of the EWASH group (www.ewash.org), in collaboration with the WASH Cluster in the OPT. EWASH represents over 30 organisations working in water, sanitation and hygiene in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its members include local and international NGOs and UN Agencies. This factsheet is endorsed by the following organisations: Asamblea de Cooperación Por la Paz (ACPP), CARE International – Gaza and the West Bank, Comitato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo dei Popoli (CISP), Gruppo di Volontariato Civile (GVC), House of Water and Environment (HWE), the Near East Christian Council for Refugee Work – International Christian Committee Jerusalem (NECC-ICC), MA'AN Development Centre, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON), Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH), Premièr Urgence (PU), Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC), American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) – Gaza and the West Bank, Islamic Relief – Palestine, Action Against Hunger (ACF), AlDameer Association for Human Rights, Dan Church Aid, Applied Research Institute EUROPEAN COMMISSION – Jerusalem (ARIJ), Save the Children – UK and Save the Children – US. This project is funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO). The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Commission. HUMANITARIAN AID