Gender and water on the road to Rio /

There is a crisis over the management of all the water resources in the world. Water ecosystems are under increasing pressure from human activities and settlements, water has to travel longer distances to reach industries and cities, crop production is consuming increasing amounts of water, energy production draws on more and more water, all of which is exacerbated by rapid climate change. It is estimated that 884 million people lack decent access to water. The World Commission on Water estimates that water use will increase by about 50 percent in the next 30 years and that by then, more than half the world population (approximately 5 billion people) will suffer from severe water stress. Water scarcity has several gendered elements. One of them, according to a 2011 report, is that "in almost three quarters of households without access to drinking water on the premises, women and girls have the primary responsibility for collecting water and in some countries the proportion is more than 90 percent."