Trans Lives at the Crossroads of Water Insecurity and Climate Change
By Surabhi Malhotra
In the growing climate crisis, one truth is becoming increasingly clear: those already at the margins of society are the first to feel its impacts and the last to receive relief. Over the past few years, we have seen rising recognition of how climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations—such as women, children, low-income households, and people with disabilities. However, there are still many communities whose vulnerabilities remain both under-researched and under-acknowledged.
Among these are transgender individuals, who face some of the most insidious challenges—particularly in accessing basic services like water and sanitation. As the world grapples with rising temperatures, recurring floods, and deepening droughts, the intersection of climate change, water insecurity, and trans rights demands urgent attention. These challenges are even more dire in the Global South. In countries like India, stigma, legal invisibility, and economic marginalization often force transgender individuals into poverty and informal settlements.
India’s 2011 Census recorded nearly 488,000 transgender people, but experts estimate that this number is an undercount. Rapid urbanization coupled with discriminatory housing practices has concentrated many trans communities in high-risk urban areas—slums, peri-urban zones, and disaster-prone geographies—where basic infrastructure is lacking. According to a 2021 policy brief by the Strategic and Policy Research Foundation (SPRF), most transgender persons in India live in low-income urban settlements or semi-rural areas—spaces already struggling with basic WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) infrastructure. This vulnerability is not coincidental; it is manufactured through decades of systemic neglect.
The Everyday Struggle: Trans Lives and Sanitation Insecurity in India
Even without the added strain of climate change, transgender individuals in India face numerous obstacles in accessing clean water and safe sanitation. Most public and institutional toilets in the country are sex-segregated, leaving trans people to choose between two unsafe options—neither of which aligns with their identity. A 2022 report by QueerBeat shared personal accounts of several trans persons who avoided using public toilets entirely, citing fear of violence, verbal abuse, or arrest. A significant number avoid drinking water for long hours just to avoid public restrooms, often leading to urinary tract infections, dehydration, and other chronic health problems. Some are forced to relieve themselves in isolated or unsafe areas, leading to heightened health risks (SPRF Policy Brief, 2021).
For trans people undergoing hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgeries, access to clean water and hygienic environments becomes even more critical. Post-operative care requires sanitary conditions that are often unavailable in informal or low-income housing. Without access to inclusive facilities, their physical health—and dignity—remains perpetually at risk (QueerBeat Article, 2024).
Climate Change Doesn’t Affect Everyone Equally
Climate change doesn’t affect everyone equally—it acts as a force multiplier for existing inequalities. For people already excluded from basic services, its impact is not just environmental—it’s existential.
Climate induced disasters such as droughts disrupt municipal water supplies, making it even harder for informal settlements to get regular access to safe drinking water. Floods destroy already fragile infrastructure and often wipe out homes and small shops—especially those located in low-lying or unregulated neighborhoods. In India, where over 17% of the urban population lives in slums, many transgender individuals find themselves among the first displaced and the last to be rehabilitated.
During emergencies like cyclones, floods, or extreme heat waves, people are moved into relief camps—many of which are strictly segregated by binary gender. Trans individuals are frequently turned away at the gate, harassed inside, or forced to misgender themselves to access shelter. Many end up sleeping on the streets, exposed to danger and denied food, water, and medical aid.
In conversations documented by Mongabay India’s 2023 article, trans individuals shared stories of losing their homes and livelihoods to climate disasters. Karthika, a trans woman in Chennai, saw her tea stall and house washed away in the 2015 floods. Post-disaster, she was denied access to shelters and forced into begging to survive.
Such stories are echoed across regions. During Hurricane Katrina in the United States, two Black transgender women were arrested for using bathrooms that matched their gender at a relief shelter (LCV Blog). In Pakistan’s 2022 floods, 95% of trans individuals were unable to access formal relief (Global Health Now, 2024). These patterns reveal a systemic failure to recognize and protect trans lives in times of crisis.
The Psychological Toll of Water Insecurity
Water insecurity and lack of access to WASH infrastructure isn’t just a physical threat. It deeply affects mental health. A cross-sectional study conducted in Mumbai and Bangkok found that LGBTQ individuals facing water insecurity experienced significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, and social isolation (Cambridge Global Mental Health Journal, 2024). Trans people, in particular, bore the brunt of these effects.
This aligns with the theory of "minority stress", which posits that marginalized individuals experience chronic stress due to discrimination and stigma. Add the unpredictability of climate events and the daily struggle for basic needs, and the mental toll becomes severe.
And yet, mental health support remains largely absent in both WASH planning and emergency climate response. Without dedicated resources and inclusive care systems, these issues remain invisible. Without targeted mental health support and inclusive infrastructure, these psychological impacts go unaddressed, exacerbating the cycle of exclusion.
Rights Exist on Paper—But Where’s the Accountability?
India’s Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 affirms trans people’s right to access public spaces, including sanitation facilities, without discrimination. The Swachh Bharat Mission also acknowledges transgender people but doesn’t lay out concrete measures or processes to establish gender neutral facilities (CREA Report). International frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also emphasize universal and equitable access to water and sanitation (SDG 6) and the need to reduce inequalities (SDG 10). But implementation remains far from adequate. In a 2022 parliamentary session, when asked about toilets built specifically for trans individuals under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the government only cited the total number of public toilet seats—636,000—offering no data on gender-inclusive design or accessibility (QueerBeat Article, 2024).
While some cities are taking small steps—Chandigarh and Nagpur have recently piloted gender-neutral public toilets —these efforts are isolated and lack systemic scale. The Kerala government has also been a leader, launching the “Gender Park” in Kozhikode, which includes initiatives to empower women and transgenders. Beyond government action, community-led and NGO-driven initiatives are making significant strides. The Sahodari Foundation and Orinam regularly conduct sensitization workshops for municipal staff and advocate for the inclusion of trans voices in urban planning. WaterAid India, in partnership with local trans collectives, has piloted participatory design projects in low-income settlements, ensuring that new WASH facilities address the specific needs of trans and non-binary residents—including privacy, security, and menstrual hygiene management. However, without political will and funding, progress remains patchy and insufficient.
Toward a More Inclusive and Just Future
If we are serious about climate justice, we must center those most affected—not just in language, but in policy, infrastructure, and empathy. The burden of advocacy cannot fall solely on trans individuals. Policymakers, urban planners, climate professionals, and the broader public must step up. Here are some suggestions as first steps to systemic and long-lasting change:
Recognize trans people as stakeholders in climate adaptation plans, disaster response frameworks, and infrastructure investments.
Ensure WASH infrastructure is inclusive—not just with signage or “third gender” toilets but with options that ensure safety, privacy, and dignity.
Collect disaggregated data on access to water and sanitation by gender identity. It is difficult to fix what we don’t measure.
Support community-led design of sanitation and hygiene facilities—centered on local knowledge and intersectional experience (caste, class, age, disability).
Include mental health support in emergency response packages that are trauma-informed and trans-inclusive.
Back legal rights with budgetary allocations. Enforcing the Trans Rights Act means ensuring funds reach inclusive WASH programs.
Train relief workers and officials to serve all gender identities with dignity, especially during climate-related emergencies.
At its core, the struggle for water and sanitation is a struggle for dignity. For transgender people in India and across the world, the fight for access to toilets and clean water is deeply linked to their right to exist safely, freely, and fully.
In the era of climate crisis, we can no longer afford to treat water access as a gender-neutral issue. As disasters grow in frequency and intensity, our solutions must be rooted in justice and equity. Ensuring safe and inclusive WASH access for trans communities is not just a policy imperative—it is a moral one.
Surabhi is a passionate advocate for child rights and social impact, with extensive experience in education, youth engagement, and policy advocacy. Committed to creating systemic change for vulnerable children, she graduated in 2025 with a Master of International Relations at The Fletcher School, Tufts University focusing on the intersection of children’s rights and sustainable development.