Sanitation Voices and Gender Based Violence

In my previous blog post, CTLS and PGISM were highlighted as being fascinating and growing solutions to ‘The Unmentionable’, through which communal knowledge and voices could be both seen and heard.

Having spent time reflecting on the post's ending, however, the question that still remained unclear and unanswered, is whose voice is really being heard in the implementation of change? Even more importantly, whose voices need to be heard and are not?

The crucial nature of these questions has led me to consider the gendered nature of water and sanitation in Africa. Specifically, it’s led me to the shocking exploration of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in slum geographies, where GBV is defined as “violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships… within the context of a specific society” (Bloom, 2008:14).

How might we imagine this type of violence emerging in sanitary practices? Perhaps the following video goes some way to setting a scene that you can more easily relate to…

Certainly, this is a powerful hypothetical for many of us. However, sanitary GBV is far more explicit in certain African communities.

SLUMS OF NAIROBI, KENYA

The slums of Nairobi have been highlighted as a key informal settlement where there is an urgent need to address GBV, emerging in part from sanitation access. Kenya’s rate of urbanisation is among the highest in Africa, but, as is common to rapidly urbanising areas, the majority of Nairobi’s residents live in informal slums. Such geographies are the antithesis of sanitary havens, with inadequate, inaccessible and unpoliced toilets being commonplace throughout. Once again, therefore, we see how urbansation creeps back into the fold. Consequent of this, most women walk an average of more than 300 meters from their homes to access available latrines, exposing them to “the ever-present danger of… gender-based violence, particularly at night” (Amnesty, 2010). The nature of such violence can generally be though to reflect the broader communal power relations, where dangers can be so apparent that, as bluntly stated by one female interviewee, “If you go out at night you will get raped and assaulted” (Amnesty, 2010).

The violence associated with this (seemingly) simple task, also percolates into additional and closely related WaSH behaviours, including the vital task of retrieving water for the household. Women are often responsible for such collection, meaning that perpetrators of GBV are offered “large windows of opportunity as well as constant and dependable access to vulnerable women and girls” (Pomells et al., 2018).

Considering the pervasiveness that GBV demonstrates, alongside the topics discussed last blog, why are these gendered issues so dominant in communities?

The Two-Way Unmentionable

Once again, we find ourselves confronted with theme of ‘The Unmentionable’. Here, however, I feel it is necessary to extend our previous conversation to discover a two-way invisibility effect. 

Unsurprising, a primary component of this two-way unmentionable is an cultural manifestation of silence, due to either shame, or fear of reprisal. Certainly, key informant interviews point to these masking factors:

“by the time he [perpetrator] was reported the numbers were extremely astonishing of all the people related to the sexual exploitation” (Pomells et al., 2018)

“one of the four men who was well known later told me if I reported the incident to official authorities…they would look for and deal with me" (Amnesty, 2010).

In this way, incidents of GBV are not dealt with as quickly as they could be.

An additional concern slowly being recognised in academia, however, it that whilst there is a large degree of focus concerning women’s health in water and sanitation, much of this is orientated around pathogens, rather than physical attacks and abuse (Pomells et al., 2018). This is extremely troubling, suggesting that researchers are failing to provide visibility to this crucial issue, and in that way allowing ‘The Unmentionable’ to persevere. Personally, in researching this topic to post, even I was taken aback at how few resources there were to supplement the structure of this blog, especially media resources. No wonder then that Ndesamburo et al., (2012) reiterate the essential nature of studies and research to continuously inquire about gender dynamics, ensuring such issues are mainstreamed.

Of course, I wouldn’t want to leave you with the impression of complete radio silence regarding this topic. Wateraid, for example, has produced a fantastic ‘practitioner’s toolkit’ and video (below) to highlight how GBV is a much-needed conversation for NGOs. However, as researchers we need to ensure we do no shy away from these subjects that are so important. 

So where have we landed and what’s next?

The inclusion of communal voices cannot only consider the relatively hegemonic. Instead, inclusive action must deconstruct the community, incorporating the many unique voices that differentially experience its physical and social spaces.

Currently, women are one such marginalised group that bear much of the burden emerging from inadequate sanitary access, yet they are often excluded from participating meaningfully in decision-making and management. Approaches that are implemented to address gender inequalities, without the voices of those who those it impacts most, will only ensure that deeply embedded and unequal power relations persist (Ndesamburo et al. 2012).

Raising awareness of exclusionary issues and the physical, social, and attitudinal barriers faced by certain individuals is thus an extremely powerful first step towards meeting the needs of the most marginalised. Once visibility has been shed on the inter-web of causes and consequences of the GBV discussed here, empowerment has a better chance to act as an interacting agent between WaSH outcomes and communal development (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Flow diagram of empowerment at the centre of community equality and WaSH outcomes
Authors: Dery et al., 2019