And girls are locked into poverty in perpetuity. Marginal farmers farm marginal lands. They are often on the periphery of irrigation facilities. In many parts of the People s Republic of China, India, Pakistan, and Thailand, they are at the tail end of the distribution systems and almost never able to reliably access water. Low productivity and crop failures create food insecurity.
Uncertain incomes perpetuate indebtedness, and social misery is compounded.
The urban poor in densely populated towns and cities in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal queue interminably at public standposts to access limited quantities of water of dubious quality. In India, the poor are often confined to consumption levels below 15 liters per capita per day compared with the better off who consume up to 300 liters per capita per day. Because sanitation facilities are almost never available to them, the poor use community drains and city peripheries for excreta disposal. The environmental hazards of poor sanitary practices affects the urban poor more severely than others. The inequity is harsh the poor have less time to spend on productive work, fall sick more often, and spend more on getting well.