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Water woes
The sound of trickling water … bleating of lambs and the jingle of the bangles as they rub against the metal pitcher while it is being filled … happy background sounds … except when these sounds get almost faint and voices, women and even men come in the forefront.
“He beats me if there is not enough water in the house for him to take a bath”; “it sometimes takes us an hour to go by foot to reach the river bank to fetch water”; “in sickness or in health, or even during the last few days of our pregnancy we have to get the water; there’s no getting our of it”; “the doctor told me I’d lost my child because I was lifting weight; even now she has asked me to take rest and not lift heavy things, but that’s impossible. I have to carry those heavy utensils; otherwise who will do it?”; “it’s not a man’s job, women have done it always.”
These oral testimonies, by both men and women, but more by women, at times demure yet resilient, from across Pakistan, interspersed with stronger voices of those who seek gender justice in water policies, form part of a series of 10 radio programmes of 15-minute duration each, soon to hit the airwaves.
Titled Pani ki Kahani, Aurat ki Zubani, this is a debut attempt to engender the issue of water through the use of interviews, features, discussions, etc. The programme goes one step further, focusing on the needs and aspirations of women and promises a re-examination of the national water policy. These radio programmes, produced by Uks, an Islamabad NGO, in collaboration with Panos South Asia, are intended “to be non-commercial and dedicated to public interest broadcasting”.
According to Asian Development Bank (ADB) today, over 1.1 billion people around the world lack access to improved water supply and 2.4 billion people lack access to improved sanitation. Recent studies predict that by 2025, two out of three people in the world will be facing a water shortage.
A study by the ADB, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), and the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled Asia Water Watch 2015 estimates annual investments of US$8 billion over the next decade to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for safe drinking water and sanitation alone in the Asia Pacific region. Additional investments are needed for irrigation services, river basin management, flood management and mitigation, and wastewater management.
‘Pani ki Kahani, Aurat ki Zubani’, is a debut attempt to engender the issue of water. It focuses on the needs and aspirations of women and promises a re-examination of the national water policy
Pakistan’s water supply coverage is among the best in South Asia according to ADB with 95% in urban areas and about 87% in the villages — and the rural coverage is expected to be over 90% by 2015. However, gender roles relating to water use remain unchanged, even more so in rural areas.
The issue about water quality and universal access are close to women, and the real picture is often masked by statistics. A nationwide survey by the Network for Consumer Protection last year said only 19.4% Pakistanis have access to “clean and safe” drinking water and over 77% of the rural population relies on sources such as pumps, tube wells, streams, ponds and lakes.
This is not their first attempt having made programmes on women’s rights, their health issues and violence perpetrated against them, unconventional and taboo issues like HIV/Aids, drug abuse, prostitution, on-location programs on the recent Asian earthquake as well as producing issue-based commissioned programmes for various organisations. “We try to prod and challenge stereotypical perceptions and urge people to look at issues through a developmental lens,” says Tasneem Ahmar, the organisation’s director.
In a country with low literacy rate, radio — especially with the arrival of FM channels — has given listenership a sudden boost. Primarily entertainment-oriented, there is room in this quickly expanding and malleable genre of broadcast journalism to air social messages — telling stories and creating pictures, but more importantly, for once, giving a chance to those who remain unheard.
“While women are the most affected by water, it’s an issue where they remain voiceless. For our part, the production team travelled across Pakistan and covered all major issues related to women and water including migration, mobility, health and hygiene, workload, employment, etc. Our aim is to bring out the voices of marginalised population onto the airwaves,” says Ahmar.
“Much of the sufferings of women can directly be attributed to water: lack of water resources, limited or hazardous access to water and its poor quality, etc, impact women’s mental, emotional, physical and reproductive health. That is because women in Pakistan, as in so many other developing countries, are the suppliers as well as managers of water,” she adds.To this, add collecting firewood, grass and fodder for livestock for which women go out of the house. Inside they have to tend to the never-ending row of children, elderly in-laws and extended families, cooking, cleaning. Their work seems endless. But there are voices, strong ones like those of Simi Kamal, of the Global Water Partnership, who feels a more meaningful participation of women is the call of the day in matters relating to water resources development and management, gender awareness raising, institutional representation of women and their capacity building.
She explains the woes of women best when she says in an interview segment: “We need to find answers to how much water we have, where is it coming from, how it is being used, Pakistan’s demography. Instead, we are entangled in the ‘yes dam, no dam debate’. More importantly, we need to address the most important issue — how are our women being affected. The tragedy is that those who make policies never have had to walk, sometimes as far as even 12 km —that too, just one way — under scorching heat with a couple of water-filled pitchers on their heads. They have absolutely no idea how much time is wasted or how the health of these women is affected.”
The programmes, says Ahmar optimistically, are bound to generate a good amount of debate. Their earlier attempts have met with excellent feedback. “A 15-minute series, Poverty, Peace and Justice, was so well received that the FM channel that was broadcasting it had to increase the time duration to one-hour to include live calls.” — Dawn/IPS News Service
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