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56^th SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN

HIGH LEVEL PANEL

Rural Women and the Right to Water

New York - 2 March 2012

Presentation by the Sierra Leone Honourable Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, Mr. Stephen J. Gaojia

I am extremely delighted to be on this panel. I thank the co-organizers for inviting me to share my country Sierra Leone's experience on this very crucial topic “Rural Women and the Right to Water.”

At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the presence of our distinguished panelists who, from their designations listed on the programme are all working tirelessly to ensure adherence to the human right to water and sanitation as contained in UN General Assembly Resolution A/64/292 of July, 2010, which declared “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights”. I specifically acknowledge the presence of Mr. Musa Ansumana Soko, National Chairman of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network (WASH-Net) Sierra Leone for the excellent job his organization is doing to eliminate every barrier to achieving sanitation and safe drinking water to our communities.

We are all aware that Water is a key factor in the socio-economic development and the fight against poverty in every country. Having gone through a decade-long devastating conflict in Sierra Leone, which did not only make our existing infrastructure obsolete, but led to the total destruction of even the little we had before the war, the Government of Sierra Leone has made the issue of providing safe drinking water for its entire people, including in the rural areas one of its major priorities.

Sierra Leone believes that since majority of our female population live in the rural areas where pipe borne water is hard to find, and in compliance with the target of the Millennium Development Goal 7 that calls for “halving by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”, access to safe drinking water is a necessity in all our communities. In that connection, a gender responsive Water and Sanitation Policy for Sierra Leone was formulated in 2007 with an overall objective to manage the water resources of the country in an integrated manner to support social and economic development in the areas of health, agriculture, and energy as well as to maintain the productivity and integrity of the environment on a sustainable basis.

The mainstreaming of gender perspective in our Water and Sanitation Policy of 2007 was not only meant to increase access to safe drinking water, improve health, reduce poverty and increase production among our women, 70% of whom live in the rural areas, but also to get women directly involved in decision-making related to our National Water Supply and Sanitation Programmes. We are of the view that the success of any water and sanitation projects requires the active and direct involvement of women because they bear the greater burden of fetching, storing, and providing water for the family. It is the women who dispose of domestic waste and teach personal hygiene to the children.

In that regard, I find this discussion very opportune because there are currently very important reforms going on in the water sector with support from our development partners. I will just highlight a few of the measures adopted so far to ensure accessibility to water for our population:

· The establishment of a Ministry of Energy and Power responsible for water supply and sanitation;

· The appointment of an experienced female, also a gender activist as Chairperson of the Board of Guma Valley Water Company in the person of Dr. Nana Pratt (present in this room) was a move in the right direction. It is of no doubt that she is pushing for the integration of women’s perspectives in all national plans supporting access to affordable safe drinking water, including the rural areas.

· The establishment of the Sierra Leone Water company (SALWACO) by an Act of Parliament was predominantly implemented in the urban area but now extended to all communities in the rural areas.

I would like to point out that in spite of the strides taken so far, access to safe drinking water still remains a critical challenge in the country of Sierra Leone.

This forum affords us the opportunity to collectively highlight some of the advantages of putting safe drinking water within the reach of our rural communities in our respective countries. My Sierra Leone government is highly committed to the following:

· Helping to reduce the risk of sexual violence and abuse among women and girls who normally travel far distances to fetch water;

· Reduce the prevalence rates of teenage pregnancy and new HIV infections;

· Prevention of water borne diseases;

· Reduction in the prevalence of girl’s dropout rates from schools which is an epidemic in our communities.

· Reduce the care-giver burdens on women and young girls to give them more time for productive endeavors such education and even for leisure;

· Providing opportunities for women’s active engagement other community development initiatives and programmes.

I wish to assure everyone present that we are committed to ensuring the accessibility and availability of affordable safe drinking water to all our communities including the rural areas. However, we are constrained by limited human and financial resources, which is an impediment to the implementation of all our programmes and projects.

Let me conclude by acknowledging the great work done by other development partners like Oxfam and World Vision, particularly empowering women to take ownership and leadership on the management of rural water and sanitation projects in very remote areas.

Finally, I would like to commend the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa for assisting with the development of our Sierra Leone National Water Supply and Sanitation Policy that has guided our operations in the last five years.

I thank you for your attention.