Water, Gender and Development in Africa

The Issue Period poverty is described as a lack of knowledge about menstruation, and the inability to access menstrual hygiene products (MHPs) or WASH facilities. It’s greatly detrimental to people who menstruate as menstrual taboos are firmly rooted within society, like the perception that menstrual blood is both polluted and polluting.  Evidence of using menstrual products is hidden in fear and shame , by drying reusable cloths in dark, damp and unhygienic places, and staying up late or waking up early to clean them. Used sanitary products that are not properly buried, can curse  people with infertility. Described by Houppert (1999) as a ‘culture of concealment’, those who are menstruating are expected to maintain their menstrual practices as invisible and silent.  Because of this, one in ten students in sub-Saharan Africa repeatedly miss school during their period. The shame and fear of leaking blood whilst using alternative, and often unhygienic sanitary items, s...

In light of the challenges women face raised by inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in my last blog post, I have dedicated this blog post to the Mathare 10 project: a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) initiative in Kenya, aimed at eliminating open defecation.  The City Council of Nairobi enforced the Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy in 2007 to improve universal access to sanitation via a participatory, people-centred approach. As part of this law, Plan Kenya, an international, humanitarian development organisation introduced CLTS to ten villages in Mathare, Kenya, in June 2010. The Mathare 10 project is a participatory approach that aims to achieve open defecation communities, replace ‘flying toilet’ practices through the use of a night bucket system, and encourage landlords to agree to construct latrines for their tenants. Non-government organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) are the primary sanitation and solid was...