Climate justice and gender equality cannot be achieved separately, a Pacific women’s conference heard this week.

Marshall Islands President Dr Hilda Heine said the climate crisis faced in the region and the world would make gender equality more difficult to attain.

“For example, we know that we cannot have gender equality without climate justice, and vice versa,” Dr Heine told delegates at the the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women gathered in the Northern Pacific for the first time in 40 years.

• READ MORE: Other articles in the Pacific Women series

“Our aspirations are shared,” Dr Heine said.

“We have convened on Majuro because of one of those aspirations is the empowerment of Pacific women and girls in all their diversities and ultimately to reach gender parity in our region.”

President Heine said that for gender parity to be achieved, every Pacific woman’s ability, talent dreams would need to be harnessed.

“We must draw on the resourcefulness of Pacific women, rich in our diverse cultures and traditions, to map a way forward for us, tapping into our region’s diversity and creativity to find solutions that are embedded in our Pacific philosophies and world views,” she said.

“We know that the climate crisis will make achieving gender equality even harder — and that we cannot solve the climate crisis without gender equality.”

Women hit fastest, hardest
Heine said women were often hit fastest and hardest by climate impacts.

“They are the first responders of the family, responsible for ensuring that the family is taken care of and healthy,” she said.

“As climate change brings droughts, they are charged with securing water; when children or the elderly are affected by extreme heat, it is women who are the primary caregivers.

“In the Marshalls, where women often participate in the informal economy through the production of handicrafts, for example, we know that the material used for those handicrafts are at risk as sea levels rise and salt water inundates our arable land.

“Women are also central to the solutions to the climate crisis.”

Dr Heine said Pacific women had been some of the strongest voices for climate ambition at the international level while at home they were caretakers for solar panels, providing communities with clean energy.

She described them as being at the heart of securing climate justice.

‘Gains are far from consistent’
Two regional meetings took place on Majuro Atoll this week — the 8th Ministers for Women meeting and the 3rd PIF Women Leaders Meeting.

Political commentators said this showed that regional leaders recognised the importance of gender equality and the meetings provided opportunities to collectively discuss how to advance their commitments to the issue at national, regional and international levels.

President Heine acknowledged that the Pacific had made what she described as remarkable progress on women’s rights on many fronts in recent decades.

“But these gains are far from consistent and much more remains to be done,” she warned.

Women’s health, gender-based violence, and climate justice were the themes for discussion during the conferences and highlight some of the key challenges Pacific women continue to face.

Dr Heine said all these issues aggravated the impacts of inequalities faced by women and girls as a result of existing social norms and structures.

She said the triennial conference and the Pacific Ministers for Women meeting were important platforms at which to unpack these and other barriers to gender equality.

Netani Rika is an award-winning Fiji journalist with 30 years of experience in Pacific regional writing. The joint owner of Islands Business magazine he is communications manager of the Pacific Conference of Churches and is in Majuro, Marshall Islands, covering the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women.

A National Union of Workers (NUW) official is hopeful Fiji Water employees who have been on strike for almost a week will return to work shortly.

Last Tuesday, a group of workers for Fiji Water went on strike over pay disputes at the multi-million dollar US-owned company’s water bottling plant in Yaqara and the Naikabula depot in Lautoka.

NUW’s industrial relations officer Mererai Vatege said the parties were currently working on a resolution.

• READ MORE: Fiji Water committed to resolving issues with striking workers

“There have been some developments, the parties are currently talking,” Vatege said.

“We’re very hopeful and positive that this will be resolved soon.”

Vatege said the NUW met with Ministry of Labour officials on Thursday and are now awaiting a response from Fiji Water.

However, she was unable to give a date when she expected the matters to be resolved by.

Talks broke down last month
The employees have continued their strike, holding signs with messages calling for pay increases and working conditions.

Talks broke down between Fiji Water and workers on April 8.

The workers claim the company has failed pay owed overtime and have not made income adjustments to inflation, along with other pay related issues.

Fiji Water employees strike.           Viudeo: RNZ Pacific Waves

RNZ Pacific have requested comment from Fiji Water but have not had a response.

However, in a statement last Wednesday, a company spokesperson told Fijian media it was regrettable workers had engaged in a strike.

“The decision to strike is also unlawful because these issues have been submitted to the Ministry of Employment, which has not yet decided on the dispute,” the spokesperson said.

“Fiji Water takes great pride in being one of the best employers in Fiji and operating one of the most advanced and safest plants in the world.”

Some of ‘highest benefits’
The spokesperson said the company provided some of the highest and best benefits in Fiji, including a 13.5 percent wage increase in 2022.

They said recent offers to the union equal an additional 17 percent pay increase for hourly-paid workers and a new roster pattern that would give workers 17 more days off each year.

“Instead, the union has elected to engage in a strike that harms workers who will not receive wages while on strike,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the company would remain committed to resolving the contested issues with the union.

Vatege said employees wanted to return to work but were united in strike action.

She said they would only return once an agreement was signed between the union and the employer.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Sepik villagers hit by Papua New Guinea’s earthquake flooding are desperate for clean water, says local volunteer Charles Marlow

“Since the flood, the main Sepik River we have been drinking from is not safe anymore, evidence of faeces is seen floating on the water,” Marlow told the PNG Post-Courier.

“When the earthquake struck on Monday, most tanks of most houses in the Sepik River area burst.

• READ MORE: Disaster minister Joseph briefs PNG on quake and crises hitting nation
• Other PNG disaster reports

“Right now, I can say people are going hungry, food has become scarce and we no longer have access to safer water source to drink from,” Marlow said in an interview.

“I live in Pagwi area. Today I went by boat to three nearby villages and returned. I spoke to the people and did my own assessment on the situation as a volunteer.

“People are in desperate need of food and drinking water.

“They cannot harvest sago or food from the gardens, everything has been destroyed by the high tide from the main Sepik River which has covered the nearby inlands where sago and other garden produce are harvested from.

Houses collapsed
“From Pagwi, I went to Savanaut then to Yenjimangua and Naurange villages.

“In Yenjimangua seven houses collapsed and in Niaurange eight houses altogether sank into the water.

“No casualty from the earthquake was reported from those three villages but there are deaths I heard in other villages I did not visit,” he said.

East Sepik Provincial Administrator Samson Torovi said the 28 local level governments in areas affected by flood have been allocated relief funding as of yesterday.

“The LLG presidents of our 28 local level governments have resolved to use the K200,000 (about NZ$88,000) provincial support to immediately supply food stuff, canvas and relief supplies to our people,” Torovi said.

“The East Sepik Provincial Disaster Management team will draw down on its internal revenue allocation of K200,000 in this year’s budget to commence mobilisation of relief work at the provincial level.”

Phoebe Gwangilo is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with with permission.

While ostensibly about improving Aotearoa New Zealand’s water infrastructure, the government’s proposed Three Waters reforms have instead become a lightning rod for political division and distrust.

Critics cite concerns about local democracy, de facto privatisation and co-governance with Māori as reasons to oppose the Water Services Entities Bill currently before Parliament.

With the mayors of Auckland and Christchurch now proposing an alternative plan, the reforms may be far from a done deal.

• READ MORE: The UK’s water industry is broken – here’s how to fix it
• 11,000 litres of water to make one litre of milk? New questions about the freshwater impact of NZ dairy farming
• If we want to improve NZ’s freshwater quality, first we need to improve the quality of our democracy

But behind the debate lies an undeniable truth: clean water is a necessity of life. In fact, 20 years ago this month the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights first affirmed that water is a human right.

The anniversary is a timely reminder of what Aotearoa’s proposed water reforms are essentially about.

Covering drinking water, wastewater and stormwater (hence the “three waters” label), the reforms would have a wider remit than the human right to water. They fold in environmental and cultural considerations alongside public health concerns.

But the human right to water, as well as lessons learned from implementing that right, have important implications for the Three Waters debate, not least around water quality and affordability.

An alternate three waters plan has been proposed by the mayors of Auckland and Christchurch, with control and ownership remaining with local councils, and the type and degree of iwi involvement decided locally.https://t.co/prVSbJuuSL

— RNZ (@radionz) October 31, 2022

A fragile right
By acknowledging it to be a human right in 2002, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights argued water is indispensable for leading a dignified life and essential for other human rights.

Since then, the human right to water has been repeatedly declared, including by the UN General Assembly and the European Union. This right is included in the constitutions and laws of numerous countries.

Despite this, 1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, and six out of ten people live with inadequate sanitation. More than 2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity, likely to become an even bigger issue due to climate change.

The human right to water covers five essential factors:

• access to enough water for drinking, personal sanitation, washing clothes, preparing food, personal and household hygiene
• water that is clean and won’t cause harm
• the look and smell of water should be acceptable
• water sources should be within easy reach and accessible without danger
• the cost should be low enough to ensure everyone can buy enough water to meet their needs.

Access and affordability
Internationally, there is evidence that the adoption of a human right to water has made a difference. In South Africa, where access to sufficient water is a constitutional right, the courts have repeatedly referred to the human right to water when determining government obligations around water services.

In 2014, the first European Citizens’ Initiative pushed the European Union to exclude water supply and water resources management from the rules governing the European internal market. This means EU citizens have a stronger voice in water governance decisions.

In 2016, Slovenia became the first EU country to make access to drinkable water a fundamental right in its constitution.

New Zealand’s Three Waters reforms are not unrelated to these basic issues of safety, accessibility and affordability. They aim to address significant problems with the country’s existing water services model, including ageing infrastructure, historical under-investment, the need for climate change resilience, and rising consumer demand.

These all require a serious programme of water service transformation — one the government believes is beyond what local councils (which currently administer most water assets) will be able to deliver.

The projected cost is estimated at between NZ$120 billion and $185 billion (on top of currently planned investment), rolled out over the next 30 years.

Three Waters debates need to be based on fact – Ardernhttps://t.co/mNtkdKTjpw pic.twitter.com/NxvlJgtpeR

— 1News (@1NewsNZ) July 20, 2022

Ambition and equity
One way or another, the work has to be done. Last year elevated lead levels were found in the water in east Otago. Ageing infrastructure and increasing demand are likely to increase the risk of similar incidents unless expensive upgrades are undertaken.

Without reform, the government argues, the huge cost of those upgrades will be unevenly spread across households, with a substantially higher burden on rural consumers.

To be affordable and equitable for everyone, therefore, the Three Waters plan involves creating four publicly owned, multi-regional entities. These will benefit from greater scale, expertise, operational efficiencies and financial flexibility compared to local councils.

But because councils could still contract out water services for 35 years, concerns have been raised about the potential for creeping privatisation.

Indeed, similar concerns, including failed attempts to privatise water services in other countries, were a significant catalyst for asserting the human right to water more than two decades ago.

While international acknowledgment of water as a human right doesn’t automatically create binding obligations on New Zealand’s government, it can still inform the Three Waters debate.

Over the past 20 years, many of the benefits of this right have accrued from its ability to focus attention on securing high-quality and sustainable water services for everyone. That remains an essential ambition for New Zealand in 2022 and beyond.

Dr Nathan Cooper is associate professor of law, University of Waikato. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.