Climate Change Increases the Burden of Water Collection on Women

Climate change will exacerbate the burden of water harvesting on women’s well-being globally

Introduction

Climate change could increase the amount of time women spend collecting water by up to 30 percent worldwide by 2050, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. In regions of South America and Southeast Asia, the time spent collecting water could double due to rising temperatures and lower precipitation. A team of scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) estimates the large welfare losses that could arise from climate impacts and highlights how women are particularly vulnerable to future changing climate conditions. Around the world, two billion people currently lack access to clean water. The responsibility of collecting water usually falls on women and girls.

Main summary

“Climate change causes rising temperatures and alters rainfall patterns, affecting water availability. We show that for women in households without running water, time spent collecting water will increase in almost all regions analyzed under change. future climate,” says the study. author Robert Carr, visiting researcher at PIK.

On a global average, during the period 1990 to 2019, women in households without running water spend 22.84 minutes each day collecting water, ranging from 4 minutes in some parts of Indonesia to 110 minutes in regions of Ethiopia.

“Compared to these figures, we found that women will have to spend up to 30 percent more time each day collecting water by 2050 in a high emissions scenario. This can be reduced to 19 percent if global warming continues.” below 2 degrees Celsius,” says Carr.

“At a regional level, by 2050, daily water collection times could double in a high emissions scenario, for example in regions of South America and Southeast Asia. For regions in East and Central Africa that currently have the In a high emissions scenario, increases of between 20 and 40 percent would occur,” says author Maximilian Kotz of the PIK.

Globally, women spend up to 200 million hours a day on this vital task (as of 2016), which can result in huge losses of time that would otherwise be used for education, work or leisure. and, at times, it can be a physical and mental burden.

The cost of lost work time could reach tens to hundreds of millions of US dollars per country per year.

Drawing on historical household survey data in 347 subnational regions on four continents between 1990 and 2019, the researchers first assessed how changing climate conditions have impacted water collection times in the past.

“We have discovered that increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfall have increased the daily water collection time,” says Maximilian Kotz. There are several possible explanations for this, he adds: “From a purely physical perspective, higher temperatures and less precipitation change the balance between evaporation and precipitation, lowering water tables. This makes access to water In addition, the journey may also become more uncomfortable and therefore take longer due to heat stress.

Combining the observed patterns with temperature and precipitation projections from state-of-the-art climate models (CMIP-6), the researchers assessed the impacts of future climate changes on daily water collection times under different emissions scenarios.

“Our results shed light on a gender dimension in the impacts of climate change,” says author and PIK researcher Leonie Wenz. “They show how strongly climate change will affect women’s well-being, causing them to lose time for education, work and leisure. By 2050, the cost of lost work time, calculated according to the country-specific minimum wage, would be substantial, reaching Tens to hundreds of millions of US dollars per country per year in a high emissions scenario.”

Article

Robert Carr, Maximilian Kotz, Peter-Paul Pichler, Helga Weisz, Camille Belmin and Leonie Wenz (2024): Climate change will exacerbate the burden that water harvesting places on the well-being of women globally. Nature Climate Change.

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Attribution/Source(s):

This peer-reviewed publication titled Climate change increases the burden on women of collecting water was selected for publication by the editors of Disabled World due to its relevance to the disability community. While content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity, it was originally written by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published on 06/21/2024. For more details or clarifications, you can contact Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) directly at pik-potsdam.de/en/home Disabled World does not provide any warranty or endorsement related to this article.

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Cite this page (APA): Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). (2024, June 21). Climate change increases the burden on women of collecting water. Disabled world. Retrieved June 22, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/disability/emergency/climate/water-collection.php

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