WUNRN
56th SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
HIGH LEVEL PANEL
Rural Women and the Right to Water
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)
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
I
thank you for your attention.