GAGGA launches “We, Women are Water” campaign 2021

The interrelated crises of water, climate and COVID-19 all share the same root causes: a deeply unjust and patriarchal economic system based on extraction and unlimited growth. GAGGA provides a platform for the funds, NGOs and women-led community-based organizations of its network to join forces in resisting this exploitative model that pollutes communities' land and water, and push for structural change and a just recovery that prioritizes people and the planet over profit.

Despite the vast challenges, the combined pandemic and climate crises have also revealed the resilience of community-based organizing led by women as well as of practices that often rely on local, traditional, and Indigenous-based knowledge to secure water. These actions reveal the strength and creativity of local women's leadership, mobilizing mutual support and community responses.

We'll be posting one or two stories every day on social media as we approach World Water Day (March 22), focusing on GAGGA-supported communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America who are already experiencing water insecurity due to climate change. While these stories make up a small sample, they reflect the reality of many communities across the globe.

Their limited water security is compounded by the actions of companies, governments and investors engaged in extractive activities, false climate solutions and agro-industry. In all these projects, the human rights of women, local communities and Indigenous peoples are violated due to lack of consultation, involvement and prior consent.

The campaign will showcase stories from partners in Bolivia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nigeria, Peru, and South Africa who show that divesting from fossil fuels like coal and oil is not only crucial for combatting the climate crisis, but also for ensuring communities' right to clean water and enhancing their capacity to adapt to climatic changes — especially during a global pandemic.

We will also spotlight cases in Bolivia, India, Indonesia and Guatemala where governments and companies promote technical solutions to the climate crisis, such as hydropower and geothermal, which protect corporate profits while negatively impacting critical ecosystems along with people's access to land, food security and water.

Through these stories, we aim to make companies, governments and investors aware of how their actions are deepening water insecurity and contamination in communities, and of the leadership of women as water defenders. Together, we demand that they:

• Divest from fossil fuel industries violating women's right to water.
• Guarantee women's right to water via gender-just climate solutions. Solutions should be sustainable and culturally appropriate with the input, consent and control of women and local communities.
• Incorporate women's demands, needs, practices and proposals in water access, management and governance.

Only by joining forces can we truly guarantee women's rights to clean water and women's participation in decision-making on its use, management and conservation. So join the campaign and amplify women environmental defender's voices one post at a time with the aim to make our demands known.

You can follow the campaign on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using #WeWomenAreWater and #MujeresSomosAgua.

You can also find this campaign statement in Bahasa Indonesia, Filipino, French, Georgian, Hindi, Mongolian, Nepali, Portuguese and Spanish.