68 images Created 19 Jun 2013
Women of Water (Ethiopia, Chad, Mauritania, Burkina Faso)
In some latitudes of our planet, the title of this exposition is part of popular imagery. Women "fairies" who bring about life with water and who extract prosperity from the water.
In the "driest" part of Africa, millions of "fairies" travel the territory each day for three, four, five or more hours, loaded down with containers that weigh 30 kilos of life, 30 litres of water. The smallest "fairies", just 5 or 6 years old, can only carry 10 kilos of life -of water- and don't have time to go to school. Unlike the legend, most African women do not have access to pure, crystalline water, but rather water that is muddy and contaminated.
Added to the lack of water infrastructures, the use of water for political and war purposes and the contamination of rivers and lagoons in developing countries, now there are the consequences of the global climate change -particularly caused by emissions from developed countries- that impede 800 million people from accessing safe water (330 million in Sub-Saharan Africa). It is a question of life or death for a large part of the world's population.
"Women of Water" explores the water problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it also aims to document the steady fight of the women of Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania -the main figures in this exposition- to obtain safe and accessible water which will open the floodgates for them to education, health and economic development.
Because we, the women and men of the North and South, global citizens who are aware of our responsibilities, must also make progress towards the rational and just management of the planet's resources so as to guarantee a decent life for all of its inhabitants.
In the "driest" part of Africa, millions of "fairies" travel the territory each day for three, four, five or more hours, loaded down with containers that weigh 30 kilos of life, 30 litres of water. The smallest "fairies", just 5 or 6 years old, can only carry 10 kilos of life -of water- and don't have time to go to school. Unlike the legend, most African women do not have access to pure, crystalline water, but rather water that is muddy and contaminated.
Added to the lack of water infrastructures, the use of water for political and war purposes and the contamination of rivers and lagoons in developing countries, now there are the consequences of the global climate change -particularly caused by emissions from developed countries- that impede 800 million people from accessing safe water (330 million in Sub-Saharan Africa). It is a question of life or death for a large part of the world's population.
"Women of Water" explores the water problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it also aims to document the steady fight of the women of Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania -the main figures in this exposition- to obtain safe and accessible water which will open the floodgates for them to education, health and economic development.
Because we, the women and men of the North and South, global citizens who are aware of our responsibilities, must also make progress towards the rational and just management of the planet's resources so as to guarantee a decent life for all of its inhabitants.
