Drought increases domestic burden for women
Sithembinkosi Moyo
Nelisa Hlambelo (27), a housewife says Zimbabwe is a patriarchal society where women are responsible for most of the household work. She says duties such as fetching water, firewood, laundry and cooking have remained predominantly a women’s responsibility and that the ongoing El-Nino induced drought, declared a national disaster by the government is increasing women and girl’s burden of caring for their families.
“The drought has worsened the water supply situation in our community. This is actually exposing the negative effects of patriarchy. Women play a peripheral role in local authorities and this is resulting in poor service delivery such as provision of clean water. The prolonged droughts was predicted many years ago, yet little is being done to take remedial actions. This is because the decision makers do not shoulder the burden of fetching water for household use,” says Nelisa.
Nelisa, who resides in Pumula East, a high density suburb in Bulawayo metropolitan province says her work now starts early in the morning, around 3AM when she walks almost two kilometres to the shallow wells at the periphery of the suburb to fetch water.
“By the time I get to the wells, I would be tired. I spend an average of thirty minutes in the queue and then walk back home carrying a 25 liter bucket on my head and holding another 10 liter bucket. To have adequate household water, I do three trips. In the meanwhile, my husband would be asleep and waiting for me to prepare breakfast before he goes to ‘work’ at 7AM,” says Nelisa.
“Our local authorities are buying expensive cars and building expensive houses for managers. This is not contributing anything towards improving service delivery. This is because they are men, and they are not worried about women’s problems,” says Nelisa.
Faith Dube (13) also lives in Pumula East suburb and says the drought is compromising her academic participation. Faith says she is a learner at a local secondary school and that she stays with her parents and two older brother who are still leaners.
“Around 4AM, my mother and I wake me up to go and fetch water from a borehole that is half a kilometer from our house. When we come back, we prepare breakfast and that is the time when my father and brothers wake up. By the time I go to school, I would be very tired and cannot concentrate on my school work,” says Faith.
Faith says when she gets home after school, she has to make another trip to fetch water. She says some girls ‘take advantage’ of the water crisis to visit their boyfriends.
“The water crisis is actually becoming one of the drivers of teen pregnancies. Some girls are coerced into sex in exchange for water from family members who own boreholes. And the fact that girls fetch water until late in the evening makes the situation worse,” says Faith.
Faith says responsible authorities are not doing much to resolve the water crisis and that her future is being affected by the ever increasing domestic work.
