3 - Sabina's Routine

 

Following my last blog post on Time Poverty, I want to highlight just how taxing the process of water collection is for women, as some of the harsh realities that come with it cannot be effectively conveyed through words alone. I knew that the task of hauling water was arduous, however, I did not really understand just how difficult it was until watching this video by ‘World Vision’. The YouTube clip follows the daily routine of Sabina, who lives in rural Kenya. It shows us how water dominates every single aspect of her life; she wakes up to feed and look after her husband (who works on the farm); then she feeds her children, and then she cleans the household. At around 2pm, when the sun is at its hottest, she begins her first trek of the day.

The walk is not easy. Its round-trip is 4 miles, 3 hours, and comes with many obstacles, thorn bushes and gates. On arrival, the river water is not only scarce, but it is also unclean and susceptible to cholera and other water-borne diseases; often their infants become infected and must be taken to emergency clinics for treatment. To harness the purest water that she can, she begins to dig a hole so that she can scoop up the groundwater and fill up her containers. After that is done, she walks back home with 70 pounds (32kg) of water on her back; this must be done twice per day. The women say that the backaches persist for hours after they return home, as they endure the intense pressure on their bones (Geere, et al. 2010).

Many women who collect water often have to outdoor their new-born babies around 2 weeks after giving birth, far less than the 6 weeks that the World Health Organisation recommends for postpartum mothers (Bintaayi Jeil et al. 2020). Sabina continued to haul water right up until, and on the day of giving birth, showing the extent to which mothers are often torn between their water responsibilities and giving their new-borns ‘motherly care’ (Bintaayi Jeil et al. 2020).

Sabina caring for her child: (World Vision, 2010)

I could critique the video in that it possibly indicates "white-saviourism", and it over generalises the continent by advertising the video as “rural Africa”, however, it does accurately show the hardship that women like Sabina have to face. The video sums up the points made in my last two blog posts, and personally, I felt directly confronted with the issues at hand: water scarcity clearly consequents unfair livelihoods for women. It is a very moving video and so I urge you to watch it, as it is only 13 minutes long! I will be researching more into the organisation of ‘World Vision’ and the work that they do to tackle the issues of water scarcity.