What connects gender inequality to the lack of basic sanitation?
What is the cause and what is the consequence?
The debate surrounding the issue of gender equality was the theme of an event promoted by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS) in São Paulo on March 8, to mark International Women's Day.
It would not be wrong to repeat the same event for March 22, World Water Day, after the CEO of BRK Ambiental, Teresa Vernaglia, presented at the event a recent study carried out by the company, which compiles data from the UN, IBGE, MEC and other sources to reach the conclusion that, yes, the lack of basic sanitation and access to drinking water may be among the causes and not only among the consequences of the immense inequality, or rather, the lack of equity between men and women in the contemporary corporate world.
The 33rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2016 addressed exactly this, but BRK's analysis brings the data closer to the Brazilian reality.
Taking the conceptual aspect of the research first, the direct relationship between water and women includes both practical needs, such as menstrual hygiene, and customs and stereotypes between genders, since due to the role played by women in domestic activities, it is a fact that women perform three times more unpaid work than men do. One example is that it is always up to women to carry the water can on their heads to supply the family when the source is far from a reliable tap.
Or, it is women who, as caregivers of their own children or those of others, are most affected by being in direct physical contact with contaminated water and human waste when sanitation infrastructure is inadequate. The same occurs in their role of caring for family members who become ill as a result of inadequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene.
The study shows that today, approaching the third decade of the 21st century, we still have a huge number of Brazilian women living in the 19th century, without a bathroom at home. Worse than that, there are more than 15 million Brazilian women who still do not receive treated water in their homes, that is, one in every seven Brazilian women.
The direct effects of the lack of access to adequate water and sewage conditions can be seen not only in health (8 million cases of women being absent due to diarrhea or vomiting in 2013, according to the National Health Survey, of which 8 thousand cases resulted in death); but also in the finances of these women (a woman living in a home without a bathroom has an income 61.3% lower than a woman living in a home with a bathroom, according to the PNAD in 2016).
This impact is also observed in terms of education level. Of the total number of young people who took the National High School Exam, 2.42 million were women (56.8% of the total) and 1.84 million were men (43.2%). Women had an average score 8.9 points lower than that of young men, but when the breakdown considers women from higher classes, i.e. with access to water and sewage, women's performance is better. This cruel indicator ends up affecting professional training and harming the entire future of these young women.
It has been three years since the United Nations (UN) recognized access to water and basic sanitation as a universal right, within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs should be the compass for government, business and, why not, individual actions towards sustainable development, since we have until 2030 to meet the targets established in the SDGs.
Studies like this one developed by BRK not only make the foundations for the urgency of adopting a more objective public policy for access to basic sanitation quite clear, which could lift more than 630 thousand women out of poverty (according to the study itself), but also, by measuring the problem for more than half of the Brazilian population, show the economic relations and the social impact that the country loses by not facing this problem once and for all.
Demonstrating the economic importance and positive impacts (for health, education and others) of expanding access to basic sanitation and how this would contribute significantly to reducing social inequality has never been so urgent. This is not a task for governments alone, but requires joint efforts between the private sector and the public sector. It also requires individuals to be aware not only of their efficient use of water, but also of a clear understanding of the interconnectedness of water and its impacts on all spheres of life in society, whether in their professional training, the health of their children or business in general.
Universal sanitation would bring an average increase of R$321.03 per year per Brazilian woman, which means an annual gain of R$12 billion in income for Brazilian women. This is money that is currently being wasted.
