The Freetown City Council (FCC), the United Nations Capital Development (UNCDF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) together with their implementing partners, on Wednesday June 15, 2022, launched ‘Women for Water and Peace (W4WP) Project’ at the new City Hall in Freetown.
The project which is funded by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund had commenced in January 2022, and will be implemented over 18 months in five (5) wards – Ward 401 – Mayinkineh, Ward 408 – Rokupa, Ward 435 – Dworzak, Ward 442 – Lumley, and Ward 443 – Crab Town. The project will see the construction of 25 Water Kiosk.
The project seeks to empower young women from the communities to become agents of change through supporting the construction and management of twenty-five (25) water kiosks with solar-powered purification systems.
The water kiosks will provide accessible, clean water for the first time to many of Freetown’s most vulnerable communities in a conflict-sensitive manner. Young women will be empowered to operate the kiosks as businesses and become agents of change and peace.
The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said that access to water represents one of the most pervasive challenges affecting women and girls in informal communities, adding that they have had reports of children leaving home before daybreak to cover long distances whilst seeking water for their families, which she said puts them at risk of injury as well as gender-based violence and sexual exploitation.
She added that through this project, women and girls would learn to take leadership roles in preventing and managing conflicts associated with water scarcity in their communities, noting that the project would simultaneously contribute to reducing conflict drivers, enhancing social cohesion, and empowering women and girls.
The United Nation Resident Coordinator,Babatunde Ahonsi said, according to United Nation’s report, access to water for women and girls globally devote over 200 million hours every day collecting water from far-off wells, rivers, and other points, noting that it is voluntary labour that is contributing obstacle in the formal economy.
He added that water management and water policymaking have been male- dominated spaces, much like other fields of governance. He cited that the role of women within water decision-making spheres, both at the local level and even more so at the international, transboundary space, has not received the recognition it deserves.
“Water management, at all levels, is currently a top-down political process and managed through structures dominated by men from the political as well as technical fronts,” Ahonsi said.
By George M.O. Williams