It's worth sharing my particular interest in Kibera, and more specifically women in Kibera, was sparked a few years ago by a video that went viral. Created by Shining Hope for Communities, the video showcases one of their many community projects, The Kibera School for Girls, which I discussed in an earlier blog entry.
First, I want to acknowledge the importance of treating women's issues as diverse, dynamic, and independent experiences. In her post, The Dangers of Ecofeminism , my classmate Phoebe Crossland provides a robust deconstruction of stereotypes applied to women's roles in water collection and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa and cautions readers against painting the role of women in sanitation with a broad stroke. Therefore, I want to narrowly focus my claims to represent experiences of women in Kibera.
Accessing Water
Most water in Kibera is supplied by the Nairobi City Water and Sewage Company– commonly referred to as the Nairobi Water Company (Nairobi Water Company). The field report about water kiosks in Kibera by RWSG-ESA describes how the piped lines connected to this water source are subject to water rationings up to three times a week, come from a source outside of Kibera (limiting residents' agency over their water supply), and are very expensive (UNDP-World Bank Regional Water and Sanitation Group for East and Southern Africa). These infrastructure and policy inadequacies put a lot of pressure on women, who are the main water gatherers.
The opportunity cost of getting water for the home is a serious problem for women. When water is unavailable from the tapped source, there is one borehole in the Mokina Mosque in Kibera that women rely on. When this is the only source of water women can spend their entire day waiting for and bringing home jerry cans of water. This prevents women from earning income and is also costly in and of itself (UN Water Action Hub).
A striking example of this struggle comes from Access to Water in a Nairobi Slum: Women's Work and Institutional Learning, by Ben Crow of UC Santa Cruise and Edmond Odaba of Africa Civil Society Platform for Social Protection. During water shortages it takes one woman about five hours a day to collect water. Confounding the opportunity cost of earning money, the water she purchases costs about USD $13/month, only slightly less than her $15/month rent (Crow & Edmond 2010).
Image: Women carry jerry cans of water. source: Water Wells for Africa
Water Sanitation and Physical Safety
Amnesty International published an extensive report on women's experiences with sanitation in Nairobi slums, "Kenya: Risking Rape to Reach a Toilet: Women's Experiences in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya." As the powerful title suggests, women are not protected legislatively or socially in Kibera.
This report describes men's attitudes towards women. Domestic physical and sexual abuse among partners is the norm and gang violence against women in the streets is extremely prevalent. Almost all women interviewed in the study mentioned the exacerbation of this danger at night (Amnesty International 2010).
68 percent of Kibera residents rely on shared toilets (World Bank 2006). Women who venture out of their homes at night to public toilets are at high risk of being raped and attacked. Because of this threat, it is more common for women to engage in open defecation outside their home. Until gender equality education, greater police presence, and law enforcement against violence are implemented sanitation remains a huge risk for women in Kibera.
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