Gendered Access to Water: Global Experiences of Resilience Among Young Girls

Undeniably, the joint effects of climate change, social inequalities and anthropogenic pressures are disproportionately affecting people ranging from loss of livelihoods and habitability, physical and mental health risks, food insecurity, water scarcity etc. depending on individual/community social positionalities along the axes of age, gender, class, ethnicity, socio-political affiliation, etc. Positionalities magnify the life and livelihood risks by leaving these individuals/community’s with fewer resources to cope with the harsh impacts of the compounded climate vulnerabilities. Globally, access to water is always gender specific. Especially, young girls for example are responsible to fetch water compromising their education, leisure or employment. Young girls spend more hours and undertake long journeys to collect water as it remains unreachable for many. The exposures of climate change degrade the availability and quality of access to fresh water worsening the situation.

Against this backdrop, this session aims to focus on diverse gender transformative responses that the socio-ecologically affected young girls develop to access water during climate crises against the gender disparities they experience in the water collection phases. These perspectives largely remain under explored in policy priorities. The session urges us to rethink the existing water policy frameworks and mainstream gendered youth perspectives to ensure equal water access for all aligning with UN SDGs. The session invites theoretical and empirical papers from individuals and research teams, with a particular focus on the Global South, critically analyzing young girl’s experiences and challenges in different contexts for a meaningful contribution towards research on climate resilience.