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Concluding remarks

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Ultimately, water and gender in Africa is a topic that needs to be further researched and distributed in education in order to improve the equality situation in many African countries. This post will sum up what I have discussed with some ideas looking forward. I have tried to explore different regions of Africa such as Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya in order not to restrict myself to individual cultures and societies. Following the path set out by my introductory post, this blog has discussed the ways in which women are discriminated due to a lack of freshwater availability such as through the threats of time poverty, sexual harassment and the challenge of managing menstruation. I think I have been most surprised by the topic of menstruation because I cannot fathom having to give up my education for a completely natural process. However, I have also tried to demonstrate that it is not all negative. There are systems being put in place to try to alleviate these problems such a...
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Overcoming the taboo of menstruation

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Finally, this post will touch on some of the programs that are trying to alleviate the difficulties of poor sanitation and consequently sexual harassment. The recent emergence of literature on the struggle of sanitation for women in Africa, which was previously neglected behind clean water, has promoted the development of sanitation facilities. This growing recognition should in turn help to lower sexual violence for women that occurs as a result of the journey to poorly safeguarded toilets, and further promote the education of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). In my opinion, the most crucial factor contributing to an improvement in sanitation levels in Africa is education. As I have disclosed in my previous posts, there is an unequal gendered attendance within schools due to the expected roles that young girls and women carry out, contributing to their time poverty. The inability to access education on menstruation and sanitation, along with poor facilities from l...
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Period poverty and the struggle of sanitation

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Following my previous post, I am going to explore the trouble that sanitation poses for women in Africa. Whilst there are rural water deficits of which I have mentioned, this post is going to home in more on urban areas where there is still a lack of facilities despite the greater prevalence of infrastructure. Ultimately, the challenge urban areas face is that infrastructure growth has to match the fast growing urban populations ( Davis, 2006 ). In addition, the foreground of concern in African infrastructure has been centred around providing clean water and it has been assumed that improved sanitation will follow. However, sanitation is of paramount importance and should not be neglected. Poor sanitation can result in widespread disease such as diarrhoea. Of the deaths caused by this disease, 88% are due to unsafe water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene activity. With the lack of academic focus on toilet habitats, ( George, 2008 ) alongside a lack of successful proj...
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