Why Water Security Matters: Women, Rural Communities, and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice

"Water is life." This simple phrase is echoed across cultures and communities worldwide because water sustains every aspect of human existence. It nourishes ecosystems, supports agriculture, enables economic development, and safeguards human health. Yet, for more than two billion people globally, access to safely managed drinking water remains a daily challenge (WHO & UNICEF, 2023). While water insecurity affects entire communities, women and girls experience its consequences most acutely.

In many rural communities across Africa, women are responsible for fetching water, preparing meals, maintaining household hygiene, caring for children, and supporting agricultural production. When water sources become scarce or polluted, these responsibilities become increasingly difficult, limiting opportunities for education, employment, and economic empowerment. Water security, therefore, is not merely a technical issue of infrastructure; it is a question of environmental justice, gender equality, and sustainable development.

What Is Water Security?

UN-Water (2013) defines water security as "the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being and socio-economic development, while preserving ecosystems."

This definition recognises that water security extends beyond having water available. It encompasses reliable access to safe, affordable, and sufficient water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, industry, and ecosystem health. A community cannot be considered water secure if water is contaminated, inaccessible, unaffordable, or vulnerable to climate-related disruptions.

Water security also depends on effective governance, environmental protection, and equitable distribution of water resources (World Bank, 2023).

Why Water Security Is a Women's Issue

Globally, women and girls spend an estimated 200 million hours every day collecting water (WHO & UNICEF, 2023). In many households, this responsibility falls almost exclusively on females regardless of age.

The implications are profound.

A girl who spends two hours each morning fetching water may arrive late to school or miss classes entirely. A pregnant woman carrying a 20-litre container over several kilometres faces increased physical strain and potential health complications. Mothers caring for infants require clean water for breastfeeding support, food preparation, hygiene, and disease prevention. During menstruation, inadequate access to water compromises menstrual hygiene management, increasing the risks of infection, absenteeism from school or work, and social stigma.

From an ethics of care perspective, water is not a mere resource to be managed efficiently but a condition for sustaining relationships, nurturing families, and preserving human dignity. Caring for water is therefore inseparable from caring for people.

Water Security and Rural Livelihoods

For rural communities, water is central to everyday survival.

Smallholder farmers depend on rivers, rainfall, wetlands, and groundwater to cultivate crops and raise livestock. Fishers rely on healthy rivers and coastal ecosystems. Women use water not only for domestic purposes but also for small-scale food processing, gardening, and local enterprises.

When water becomes unreliable, household incomes decline, food insecurity increases, and migration often follows (FAO, 2020).

In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, unreliable rainfall resulting from climate change has made farming increasingly uncertain. Families that once depended on seasonal agriculture now face recurring crop failures because water is no longer predictable.

Lessons from Water-Secure Communities

Singapore: Building Resilience Through Innovation

Singapore is frequently recognised as one of the world's leading examples of water security despite having limited natural freshwater resources. Through integrated water management, rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling (known as NEWater), desalination, and strong public investment, Singapore has developed a resilient and diversified water supply.

Rather than depending on a single source, the country has adopted multiple complementary strategies that reduce vulnerability to drought and climate variability. Singapore demonstrates that effective governance and long-term planning can overcome geographical limitations.

Windhoek, Namibia

Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, has become internationally recognised for pioneering direct potable water reuse. Since the late 1960s, treated wastewater has been purified to drinking-water standards, helping the city survive prolonged droughts.

Its experience illustrates that technological innovation, combined with strict regulation and public trust, can strengthen water resilience even in arid regions.

Rural Rwanda

Over the past two decades, Rwanda has invested significantly in rural water infrastructure through protected springs, gravity-fed water systems, and community-managed water projects. These improvements have increased access to safe drinking water and reduced the burden on women and girls who previously travelled long distances to collect water.

Although challenges remain, these interventions demonstrate how public investment can improve both health outcomes and gender equality.

Communities Experiencing Water Insecurity

Bayelsa State, Nigeria

One of the greatest paradoxes of water insecurity is found in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

Bayelsa State is surrounded by rivers, creeks, and wetlands, yet many communities struggle to obtain safe drinking water. Oil exploration has contaminated rivers and groundwater through repeated spills, while inadequate public infrastructure leaves many households dependent on polluted surface water or expensive sachet water.

Communities such as Gbaraun (Southern Ijaw Local Government Area), Odi, Biseni, and several settlements along the Nun and Forcados Rivers experience recurring challenges associated with water pollution, seasonal flooding, and inadequate sanitation.

For women, these environmental realities have practical consequences. Many travel by canoe to access cleaner water sources, spend significant portions of household income purchasing drinking water, or rely on rainwater harvesting during the wet season. Flood events further contaminate wells and increase the spread of waterborne diseases.

These realities resonate strongly with findings from Niger Delta environmental justice scholarship, which argues that environmental degradation disproportionately affects vulnerable communities while the benefits of oil extraction accrue elsewhere (Okonta & Douglas, 2003).

Turkana County, Kenya

Turkana County experiences chronic drought and severe water scarcity. Families often walk several kilometres to access boreholes or seasonal rivers.

Women and girls bear primary responsibility for water collection, limiting educational attainment and economic participation. Livestock deaths during drought also threaten household food security, reinforcing cycles of poverty.

Cape Town, South Africa

The 2018 "Day Zero" crisis in Cape Town highlighted the vulnerability of even relatively developed cities. Years of drought, rapid population growth, and increasing water demand nearly exhausted municipal water supplies.

Although disaster was ultimately avoided through aggressive conservation measures and public cooperation, the crisis demonstrated how climate change is reshaping urban water security across Africa.

Climate Change and Water Security

Climate change is intensifying both floods and droughts across the globe (IPCC, 2022). Rising temperatures increase evaporation, changing rainfall patterns reduce freshwater availability, and extreme weather events damage water infrastructure.

In Nigeria, flooding has become increasingly frequent, contaminating drinking-water sources and destroying sanitation facilities. Ironically, communities can experience devastating floods while simultaneously lacking access to clean drinking water.

Protecting watersheds, restoring wetlands, improving irrigation efficiency, reducing pollution, and strengthening community-based water governance are increasingly recognised as essential climate adaptation strategies.

Water Security Through an Ecofeminist Lens

Ecofeminism offers an important perspective for understanding water insecurity.

Ecofeminist scholars argue that the historical domination of women and the exploitation of nature emerge from similar systems of hierarchy, control, and inequality (Plumwood, 1993). Women often possess intimate knowledge of local water systems because of their caregiving roles, yet they remain underrepresented in water governance and environmental decision-making.

African feminist scholarship further emphasises that environmental sustainability cannot be separated from community well-being, care ethics, and collective responsibility.

From this perspective, achieving water security requires more than engineering solutions. It requires listening to women, valuing Indigenous ecological knowledge, promoting environmental justice, and recognising care as a moral and political practice rather than simply a private responsibility.

Towards Water Justice

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 seeks to ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030. Achieving this goal requires investment in infrastructure, stronger environmental regulations, improved water governance, and meaningful participation of local communities.

Governments must strengthen pollution control, particularly in environmentally sensitive regions such as the Niger Delta. Development partners should continue investing in rural water systems, while researchers and civil society organisations must amplify the voices of women whose lived experiences often remain absent from policy discussions.

Water security is ultimately about justice. It is about ensuring that no woman must risk her health to fetch water, no child misses’ school because of unsafe water, and no community is forced to live beside polluted rivers that can no longer sustain life.

Conclusion

Water security is fundamental to human flourishing. It supports health, education, food production, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Yet its benefits remain unevenly distributed, with women and girls in rural communities carrying the heaviest burdens of water insecurity.

Examples from Singapore, Namibia, and Rwanda demonstrate that progress is possible through innovation, investment, and effective governance. Conversely, the experiences of Bayelsa, Turkana, and Cape Town remind us that climate change, environmental degradation, and unequal access continue to threaten water security across the world.

As environmental challenges become more complex, the pursuit of water security must also become a pursuit of justice, one that centres care, equity, sustainability, and the voices of those most affected.

References

Ecofem Tales Environmental Foundation. (2025). Ecofem Tales impact report. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iPin32TLPvNDmqGYWAtjJ1b_k-SYLIYC/view

Food and Agriculture Organization. (2020). The State of Food and Agriculture 2020: Overcoming Water Challenges in Agriculture. Rome: FAO.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2022). Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Cambridge University Press.

Okonta, I., & Douglas, O. (2003). Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil in the Niger Delta. Sierra Club Books.

Plumwood, V. (1993). Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Routledge.

UN-Water. (2013). Water Security and the Global Water Agenda. Hamilton, ON: United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

United Nations. (2010). Resolution 64/292: The Human Right to Water and Sanitation. New York: United Nations.

World Bank. (2023). Water Overview. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water

World Health Organization & United Nations Children's Fund. (2023). Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000–2022: Special Focus on Gender. Geneva: WHO and UNICEF.

 

About the Author

Francisca Okwulehie is the founder and executive director of Ecofem Tales Environmental Foundation, an organization dedicated to amplifying women’s environmental stories and using storytelling to drive earth healing and climate action.