Women at the frontline of climate change

GENDER DIMENSIONS OF TOO MUCHWATER – FLOODS Recent studies focus attention on the radically changed flood patterns, including heavy rainfall that leads to landslides and soil erosion. For example, in Nepal women and men have noted increased frequency and damage caused by the floods over a twenty-year time-span (Gautam et al ., (2007). During floods, rivers may cut into agricultural land, inundate crops or wash the fields away in their entirety. Economically poor and marginalised households are affected because they often only have access to

marginalised land, such as that which is close to rivers and more acutely prone to flooding. Many rural farmers depend solely on natural resources for their survival and therefore, changes in monsoon patterns have devastating effects on their livelihoods and agricultural and pastoral practices (ibid.). In Bangladesh, similar unpredictability and changing flood patterns have negative impacts on people, homes, stored food and grains, crops and assets (Dankelman et al ., 2008). Most drought-related impacts disproportionately affect women as compared to men. Hence, women in particular report not being able to recover from one flood event before the next one hits (ibid.).

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