The WASH web

My last blog looked at Women and the WASH sector, and this blog will follow on, by focusing on one aspect – menstruation – offering some hope for the future by tackling period poverty. Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) can prove challenging for women and girls in low-income countries, where there is a lack of money and access to menstrual hygiene products (MHPs) as well as inadequate sanitation conditions to deal with their menses. Menstruation is a private matter that is rendered public, and hence there is a taboo that comes with it. This provides challenges for talking about it, and implementing change. Improving MHM starts with safe access to water and sanitation systems . Adequate MHM at school for girls can reduce absence, increase concentration in class and lead to better life outcomes for themselves . Without this, girls worry over public bleeding, having a private place to manage their menses and having a place to dispose of MHPs (as described by one girl ‘ where will we d...

  In my last blog, I looked at some realities in the WASH sector, one of which is the experience of women and girls. The importance of this is recognised in SDG 6.2 , which is to ‘achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all … paying special attention to the needs of women and girls’. This blog will look at the experiences of women and girls in the WASH sector, focusing on informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya.   Inadequate sanitation results in various health, economic and social impacts that disproportionality affect women and girls, especially in informal settlements . Impacts on women reported in Mathare, an informal settlement in Nairobi, include violence ( 68% of women reported ), respiratory illness (46% reported) and diarrhea (30% reported). Illness increases economic burdens which mostly affect women, as they have to miss work to care for the sick. Women and girls have specific hygiene needs, such as menstruation, requiring adequate sanit...