Water Scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Community Cisterns Empower Women and Prevent Disease
The Water Crisis and Its Impact on Women
In Sub-Saharan Africa, climate change has intensified droughts and disrupted rainfall patterns, making water scarcity a growing crisis. Women and girls bear the brunt of this burden because they are traditionally responsible for fetching water for their families. With local wells and rivers drying up, they are forced to walk longer distances—sometimes spending hours each day collecting water.
Increased Labor: Carrying heavy containers over long distances leads to chronic health problems, exhaustion, and lost economic opportunities.
Missed Education: Girls are often pulled out of school to help fetch water.
Safety Risks: Traveling alone to distant water sources increases risks of violence and assault.
Health Consequences: Contaminated water sources spread diseases like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid, and stagnant water increases the breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
How Community Cisterns Can Help
Cisterns are large tanks that collect and store rainwater, providing a local, reliable water source that reduces the need for long-distance water collection. When strategically built in villages, schools, and health centers, they transform communities by:
1. Reducing the burden on women and girls: With water close by, women can spend more time on education, work, and childcare instead of long treks for water.
2. Providing clean, safe drinking water: Proper filtration ensures safe drinking water, significantly lowering the risk of waterborne diseases like cholera and dysentery.
3. Preventing malaria outbreaks: Unlike open water sources (which breed mosquitoes), cisterns are closed and protected, reducing stagnant water where mosquitoes lay eggs.
4. Enhancing community resilience: With stored water, communities can withstand droughts and climate shocks, improving food security and hygiene.
5. Boosting local economies: Women freed from the labor of fetching water can start businesses, engage in farming, or pursue education.
Successful Examples of Community Cisterns
Burkina Faso: Women-led rainwater harvesting initiatives have drastically reduced water collection time, improving school attendance for girls.
Kenya’s Maasai Villages: NGO-built cisterns have cut water-fetching time from 5 hours to 30 minutes, increasing time for women’s economic activities.
Rwanda: Schools with rainwater collection systems saw a 40% drop in student absences due to improved access to clean drinking water.
Scaling Up Cistern Projects
For sustainable success, cistern projects should use locally available materials to lower costs and make repairs easier. Additionally they should train women as water stewards to manage and maintain the cisterns and integrate hygiene education to promote proper water use and sanitation.
Conclusion: Water Security as Gender Justice
Investing in community cisterns is not just about water access, it’s about gender equity, health, and economic empowerment.
By reducing the burden on women, preventing disease, and strengthening communities, rainwater harvesting solutions can create a more resilient and sustainable future for all.