Water flowing from a tap, filling a bucket, or irrigating a field may seem like a simple, almost taken-for-granted condition. But what happens when water is no longer available? When collecting it requires walking for kilometers under the scorching sun, facing exhaustion and danger? In the most vulnerable regions, drought is not just an environmental threat—it is a social crisis that disproportionately affects women. The World Drought Atlas, the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the global impacts of drought, highlights how water access is a crucial factor in gender inequality.
The impacts of drought and the gender gap
When a region is hit by drought, the first impacts are not always visible. The evaporation of a river or the depletion of an aquifer translates into additional hours of labor for millions of women. “We know that drought has a disproportionate impact on women worldwide, but especially on those living in poorer and more vulnerable countries,” explains researcher Tessa Maurer, co-lead author of the World Drought Atlas. “Women have to walk longer distances to collect water, which reduces the time they can dedicate to education or work. Moreover, it exposes them to greater risks.”
The figures speak for themselves: women in the most vulnerable countries spend up to 200 million hours a day collecting water¹. During drought periods, this time increases even further. Domestic workloads rise, as water is essential for cooking, washing, and ensuring personal hygiene—tasks that in many cultures fall almost exclusively to women. This leads to lower school attendance for girls, increased physical and psychological stress, and a widening economic gap between men and women.
A crisis that also affects the youngest
The consequences of drought also weigh heavily on young girls. “During drought periods, the number of schooling hours for girls decreases drastically,” Maurer continues. “There is increasing pressure for them to assist adult women in their families with water collection and domestic chores.”
Girls’ education is often one of the first casualties of the water crisis. In rural contexts, where schools are already difficult to access, prolonged drought can lead to permanent school dropout. The lack of education not only limits future opportunities but also perpetuates the cycle of poverty and economic dependence.
Inequality and the role of women in water management
Despite their central role in managing water at the household level, women are often excluded from decision-making regarding water resource management. “In many communities, even though women are responsible for collecting and using water daily, they have no voice in the overall decision-making processes regarding water management,” Maurer emphasizes.
This exclusion has direct consequences on the resilience of communities to drought. The absence of female perspectives in water policies limits the ability to respond to extreme events and reduces the chances of effective and inclusive solutions. One of the key insights from the World Drought Atlas is precisely the need to integrate a gender-sensitive approach to water management, recognizing women as agents of change.
The World Drought Atlas highlights these dynamics, demonstrating that drought is not only an environmental issue but also a social one, with profound impacts on the most vulnerable communities, particularly women. It requires integrated and inclusive responses. Designed as a global map to decipher the connections between climate, politics, and society, transforming data into concrete tools for anticipating and managing drought risk on a global scale, the World Drought Atlas provides a fundamental scientific basis for understanding how drought impacts different population groups and proposes solutions to mitigate these effects. To explore these topics further, you can join our webinar “Navigating Drought: The World Drought Atlas. Analysis, Impacts, and Global Case Studies” on March 28, where experts from Fondazione CIMA and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission will discuss the impacts of drought and strategies to address it.
Giving women a voice in water resource management is not just a matter of equity—it is a necessity for building more resilient communities capable of facing the climate challenges of the future.
- Source: World Drought Altas ↩︎