Rutendo Chirume

Every morning, 16-year-old Thelma Chivasa from Ward 11 in Masvingo District wakes up earlier than her two brothers. Before going to school, she fetches water from a distant well and helps her grandmother with household chores.

“I am in Form 2 at Nemamwa Secondary School. Though it is far, it is the only school we can afford,” Chivasa told EnviroPress.

She spends at least two hours each day on chores before she even begins her school journey, while her brothers remain asleep.

“There are days when my grandmother is unwell, and after school I have to fetch firewood and prepare supper. It weighs heavily on me, but I have no choice because I am the only girl child at home.

“The only well in our village is far, and the forests where we collect firewood are also distant,” said Chivasa.

Chivasa’s experience reflects a wider, silent crisis in Zimbabwe: environmental degradation is intensifying the burden of unpaid care work on women and girls, who are in constant contact with the natural environment through daily tasks such as fetching water, collecting firewood and farming.

As forests shrink and water sources dry up, these responsibilities become more demanding. Women are forced to walk longer distances and spend more time gathering scarce resources, further increasing their workload.

The El Niño-induced drought has worsened the situation, leaving many rural families struggling to put food on the table and compounding the challenges faced by women.

A 2024 report by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) titled Women at the Forefront of Combatting Drought revealed that up to 40 percent of the world’s land is degraded, affecting more than 3.2 billion people.

In Zimbabwe and across Africa, the report notes, rural women spend up to five hours a day collecting water and firewood — a figure expected to rise as droughts intensify and forests continue to vanish.

According to Chida Mudadi, programmes manager at the Center for Gender and Community Development in Zimbabwe (CGCDZ), environmental decline is lengthening women’s workdays.

“When forests disappear and water becomes scarce, unpaid care tasks like fetching firewood and water consume even more time. This limits women’s chances for education, formal employment, or civic participation,” Mudadi said.

“Around Masvingo District, we are engaging communities on good environmental practices to protect natural resources and reduce the care burden for women, now and for generations to come” said Mudadi.

Margaret Mutsamvi, Director of the Economic Justice for Women Project (EJWP), highlighted policy gaps, stressing that unpaid care work remains largely absent from environmental planning.

“Policies often track hectares restored or wildlife conserved, but not the human labour saved. Integrating gender into climate and environmental strategies is key.

“Investments in water infrastructure or clean energy should not only be seen as green policies, but also as labour-saving tools that free women’s time for economic activity,” said Mutsamvi.