Women and Disability Inclusion is Key in Urban WASH activities

The Programme Manager for Community and Youth Development Initiative, Felxfame Enisire has stated that, gender inclusion is vital in the success of WASH-related activities.

Mr Enisire addressing stakeholders at a 1-day Town Hall Meeting in the USAID funded Effective Water Sanitation and Hygiene (E-WASH) Programme at Orlu stressed the need to hold government accountable through mobilizing stakeholders from the zone and ensuring that Women, Young People, and People Living with Disability are not left out in key decision-making processes that relate to WASH services in their communities. In his presentation, he highlighted the following:

1. The Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Goal 6) to ‘ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all’ requires explicit attention to gender equality and inclusion.
2. Universal access to safely managed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and appropriate management of water resources will only be achieved if the rights of women and marginalized people are fulfilled.
3. Inequality, discrimination, and social exclusion can be found within water governance and WASH policies, strategies and access to services.
4. Social exclusion is often experienced by women, cultural minorities, youth, people with disabilities, the elderly, transgender, and intersex people, the poorest of the poor, people considered low-caste, and indigenous peoples.
5. The human right to water and sanitation (UN Resolution 64/292) as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), call for the inclusion of all, and equal rights for women, and the elimination of discrimination between people based on their age, gender, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
6. It also requires attention to multiple dimensions of discrimination, or ‘intersectionality’: for instance, women from a particular ethnic group suffering exclusion due to both their sex and their ethnicity.

He reminded the stakeholders present that, the Orlu Zonal WASH Customer Forum was established in line with the Imo State WASH policy as it aims at brainstorming, engaging and strategizing ways and ideas to revive the water schemes in Orlu zone and stakeholders need to work with the forum to improve WASH service delivery in their communities.

One of the participants, Mr. Uzoma Eddie Agu, Representative of the Director of PHC, Orlu LG council, advised that, if the Government can be held accountable for the provision of portable water, then some of the Gender Issues experienced by their women, Girls and People Living with disability will be reduced. Adding that Orlu women, Youths and other stakeholders need to pay Advocacy visits to the Government to let them know the state of WASH services in their communities.

Chairman of People Living with Disability, Comr. Ibe, in his own contribution, thanked CYDI and the USAID E-WASH Programme for always carrying them along and for their show of fairness and equity, as he appealed that all advocacy messages to the Government be fashioned in a way that can understand their plight.