Water supply and women in developing countries

Water supply and women in developing countries is a complex topic, as lack of accessible, sufficient, clean and affordable water supply has adverse impacts specifically related to women in developing nations. In most countries, women are the primary household members responsible for providing water for domestic consumption.[1] The collection of water, which may take up to six hours a day to meet the household needs, is a duty often relegated to women and children. This foregone time often prevents children, especially girls, from attending school and women from pursuing small business opportunities.[2]

Women line up at a bore hole to fill their containers with water (Labuje IDP camp, Kitgum, Kitgum District, Northern Region of Uganda)

Dealing with inequalities of water access falls under international human rights law. In 2000, the Second World Water Forum in The Hague concluded that women are the primary users of domestic water, that women used water in their key food production roles, and that women and children were the most vulnerable to water-related disasters.[3] At the International Conference on Water and the Environment, the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development included "Women Play a central part in the provision management and safeguarding of water" as one of 4 principles. Many women's rights and water advocacy organizations have identified water privatization as an area of concern, sometimes alleging negative effects that specifically affect women.[4][5]

The study of how water access and gender are related is part of Feminist political ecology (FPE).

Women and water access

Woman collecting water in Kenya.

Around the world there are patterns of discrimination in relation to water access.[6]:557 Around 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate water supplies.[7] In many places of the world, getting and providing water is considered "women's work," so gender and water access are intricately linked.[8]:256 Also, because collecting water is often unpaid labor, women are more likely to be assigned to water collection.[9] Water gathering and supply to family units remains primarily a woman's task in less developed countries where water gathering is considered a main chore.[8]:256 This water work is also largely unpaid household work based on patriarchal gender norms and often related to domestic work, such as laundry, cooking and childcare.[10][11]:5 Areas that rely on women to primarily collect water include countries in Africa, South Asia and in the Middle East.[11]:4 Many women in less developed countries must walk long distances to collect water.[8]:261 Girls who must spend hours a day collecting water from natural sources often miss school.[7] Many walk miles to get to the water source and must wait in line for their turn to collect water.[7] Some women in Africa may spend eight hours a day both collecting and then treating the water.[12] In areas of Nairobi, women carry 44 pound containers of water back to their homes, taking anywhere between an hour and several hours to wait and collect the water.[13]:733 Some of these women are unable to open their businesses because of the wait for collecting water.[13]:745

Women and girls who collect water may also face sexual assault along the way.[6]:557

In places like Nepal, not only are women and girls affected by water collection by it being their "job," but there are also restrictions for collecting water based on caste.[7] India also has a great deal of social stratification that not only affect water gathering, but also effect policies relating to government-managed water services.[14]:343 When women are represented in the government, local women are more likely to participate in public meetings relating to water delivery.[14]:347 In rural Bangladesh, women living in poverty are less likely to have a political voice regarding water access.[15]:498 When inequalities to water access aren't properly addressed, governments end up providing a low level of service to their people.[6]:558

In addition, water crises affect men and women differently in some areas, such as in rural Bangladesh.[15]:494

Inclusion of women and the efficacy of water supply

A woman walking a long distance fetching water in India

Water supply schemes in developing nations have shown higher success when planned and run with full participation of women in the affected communities.[16] A study including 88 communities in 14 countries showed that projects where men and women from intended user households were included in selection of site facilities, and where water projects were initiated by user households, rather than by external agencies or local leaders, achieved a final higher access to services than those that did not.[17]

Examples

Chile

Chilean law does not specifically include a gender component relating to water projects, but notes that all water projects must assess impact on the "lives and customs of human groups".[18] A study commissioned in 2000 by the Direccion General de Aguas relating to gender and the challenges of water resources noted:

All government institutions dealing with water resources have a very low percentage of women at the planning and decision-making levels. In stakeholder associations, their percentage in decision-making functions is even lower because women seldom participate in this kind of organisation. A sample study of water rights shoed that 16 percent of these rights belong to women. In the rural areas, the gender balance in water management is somewhat better, especially in the Indian territories. The current average percentage of women presidents in the rural zones is almost 20 percent.[19]

Uganda

The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, Article 33 [2] states "The State shall provide the facilities and opportunities necessary to enhance the welfare of women to enable them to realise their full potential and advancement".[20] Evidence of this outlined responsibility, though excluded from official water statutes, has been addressed in the National Gender Policy, National Water Policy, and the Local Government Act. The National Gender Policy lays out a framework for gender-oriented sectoral policy in development. The National Water Policy calls for the inclusion of women at all stages of implementation, noting that "women and men should have equal opportunities to participate fully in all aspects of community management".[18] The local government act requires 30% of the representation on local councils to be women, currently at around 10%.[18]

Kenya

Kenya's "Country Strategy on Integrated Water Resource Management" addresses the issue of gender and water source:

As women play an important role in provision, management and safeguarding of water, particular attention will be placed on adequately incorporating and representing gender considerations in water resource management. The issues will be addressed from two perspectives: facilitating the participation and involvement of both sexes in water resource management; and the access(benefits) of both sexes in availability of water.

Department of Water Management, Country Strategy on Integrated Water Resources Management, Section IV. Sectoral Analysis and Policy Recommendations. Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods.

The text itself is slighted by critics as not referring to equitable participation and division of workload, as well as benefits. However the Kenyan Women's Bureau has begun to cooperate with the Water Department on these matters, through a focus on environmental management, poverty alleviation, and gender.[18]

Malawi

In Malawi, a group of men managing community water sources was found to be ineffective as they were often absent during the workday. A management group consisting only of women was set up to replace the men, and water supply was reported to have improved. However the burden was too much for the female-only group and communities now split the work with an equitable share of duties.[21] Women in Malawi have also initiative in the maintenance of improved water sources, forming water tap committees composed mostly of women and using the pipelines as footpaths, reporting leaks to the village caretaker.[22]

Gender and capacity development

In scaling down water projects to the individual level, women have been found to be effective teachers at a domestic levels, and gender-sensitive approaches to water and sanitation have proven to be cost effective.[23] In the Eastern Development Region in Nepal, a small scale water management project under a "Community Water and Sanitation Programme" has shown success in a women-led team, which manages 23 tap stands in a village of the Jhapa' district in addition to running adult literacy programs and latrine construction.[24] In El Salvador, The "Watersheds and Gender Project" has taught women technical agricultural knowledge, promoted women as trainers, and fostered female participation in positions previously uniquely occupied by men.[25]

Access

Access problems relating to water involve long walking distance to the source, low water quality, lack of a sufficient quantity of water, high water prices and poor system design. Women often suffer disproportionately from these problems. In Ghana, women and children suffer as the result of failed water supply schemes where women consumed unclean water to save money to feed children.[26] In east Nepal tap stands and tube wells were located along roads, so that women had to travel long distances or wait until nightfall to avoid being seen by men while bathing freely or washing clothes.[27]

Health effects

A hand showing schistosomiasis itch

Health and access are often related in gender-related issues of water sourcing. In Tanzania, urinary schistosomiasis among women and girls was associated with the local practice of washing clothes in water infested with the vectors for the disease. As part of a project to drill wells the washing of clothes at hand pumps had been banned, forcing women to wash clothes in the open, infested water.[28] Cholera outbreaks are also of concern, as in Alexandra and KwaZulu, South Africa following contaminated water use which had been linked by some observers to water supply privatization in some localities.[4] In addition, women are often primary caretakers for HIV positive family members who require clean water in treatment, lack thereof can complicate existing effects.[4]

Water and gender in international organizations

The United Nations Interagency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) established the Gender and Water Task Force in 2003. The Task Force has since become a UN-Water Task Force and is taking responsibility for the gender component of International Water for Life Decade (2005-1015).[29] The Task Force has also called for additional empirical data regarding the issue, as "Neither the quality nor type of data currently collected are adequate to the task of supporting gender Millennium Development Goals in water and sanitation".[30]

The World Bank Gender and Development Group has also addressed the issue at an institutional level, citing successful "Gender-Mainstreaming" efforts in many of its Water Supply and Sanitation projects.[31]

Men and water access

Beginning in the 19th century, water management, access, and technology was considered a masculine domain.[10]

Gender norms can negatively affect how men and women access water through such behavior expectations along gender lines—for example, when water collection is a woman's chore, men who collect water may face discrimination for performing perceived women's work.[32] Men rarely collect water in rural Bangladesh due to local ideas of masculinity.[15]:496 On the other hand, the same norms often result in women being pressured to collect and use water in an efficient and timely manner, without the advantages of modern technology.[33] A study conducted in the Volta Region of Ghana found that men collected water only when their wives were not available.[34]

Boys and girls are able to more fully participate in school when there is improved access to water.[11]:24

Addressing inequalities in access

Feminist political ecology (FPE) seeks to question and inform understanding regarding how gender, and other social labels and classifiers, influence how people relate to and interact with the natural environment, including how people have access to water.[35][36] Gender becomes integrated into these environmentally-focused and development-oriented policies, projects, and programs through gender mainstreaming, which further encourages the convergence of women's issues and gender equality with natural resource protection and development projects.[37]

Addressing inequalities in access to water is also considered a human rights issue in legal terms and in international human rights laws.[6]:563-7 Equality in water access also means that governments and non-governmental organizations need to focus on the most disadvantaged and poorest members of the community.[6]:565 The United Nations adopted a resolution in 2010 on the "Human Right to Water and Sanitation."[6]:566

See also

References

  1. Gender-Disaggregated Data on Water and Sanitation, UN-DESA and UN-DCP, 2008.
  2. "Water and Sanitization in Developing Countries: Including Health in the Equation", Maggie A Montgomery and Menachem Elimelech, Yale University, 2007.
  3. "Women and Water", UN Division for the Advancement of Women, 2005.
  4. "Diverting the Flow: A Resource Guide to Gender, Rights and Water Privatization", Women's Environment and Development Organization.
  5. "Gender, Water, and Sanitization", UN Water Policy Brief, 2006
  6. Winkler, Inga T.; Satterthwaite, Margaret L.; De Albuquerque, Catarina (September 2014). "Treasuring What We Measure and Measuring What We Treasure: Post-2015 Monitoring for the Promotion of Equality in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector". Wisconsin International Law Journal. 32 (3): 547–594 via EBSCOhost.
  7. Moser, Anne (2009-01-01). "Women and Water: Marginalization, Hope and a Call to Action". Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women's Studies Resources. Archived from the original on 2018-04-16 via HighBeam Research.
  8. Keefer, Natalie; Bousalis, Rina (January 2015). "How Do You Get Your Water? Structural Violence Pedagogy and Women's Access to Water". Social Studies. 106 (6): 256–263. doi:10.1080/00377996.2015.1072793.
  9. Strochlic, Nina (April 2017). "Water Collective". National Geographic. 231 (4): 24 via EBSCOhost.
  10. Bennet, Vivienne; Davila-Poblete, Sonia; Rico, Maria N. (2008). "Water and gender: the unexpected connection that really matters". Journal of International Affairs. 61 (2): 107–126.
  11. Koolwal, Gayatri; Van de Walle, Dominique (May 2010). Access to Water, Women's Work and Child Outcomes (PDF). The World Bank.
  12. McManus, Reed (November 2014). "One Woman at a Time". Sierra. 99 (6): 44 via EBSCOhost.
  13. Crow, Ben; Odaba, Edmond (November 2010). "Access to Water in a Nairobi Slum: Women's Work and Institutional Learning" (PDF). Water International. 35 (6): 733–747. doi:10.1080/02508060.2010.533344.
  14. Deininger, Klaus; Nag, Sharmistha; Nagarajan, H.K. (January 2011). "Political Reservations, Access to Water and Women Empowerment: Evidence from Indian Villages". Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association: 343–349 via EBSCOhost.
  15. Sultana, Farhana (December 2007). "Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink: Pani Politics (Water Politics) in Rural Bangladesh". International Feminist Journal of Politics. 9 (4): 494–502. doi:10.1080/14616740701607994.
  16. , Van Wijk-Sijbesma, Christine, 1998. Gender in Water Resources Management, Water Supply and Sanitation: Roles and Realities.
  17. "Linking Sustainability with Demand,Gender and Poverty", International Water and Sanitation Centre, 2001
  18. "The Gender and Water Development Report 2003", The Gender and Water Alliance.
  19. Direccion General de Aguas, Maria Angelica Algeria, Ingeniera Jefa Area de Evaluacion de Recursos Hidricos, Chile (this quote does not seem to be from a publication and the publication from which it has been quoted should be added)
  20. The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995.
  21. Deda, P., Rubian, R., 2004. Women and Biodiversity: The Long Journey from Users to Policy-Makers. Natural Resources Forum, 28(3): 201-204.
  22. World Bank, 1996. Toolkit on Gender in Water and Sanitation
  23. "A Gender Perspective on Water Resources and Sanitation", Interagency Task Force on Gender and Water, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
  24. Mahapatra, K., 1996. Towards Empowerment: Women Mobilizers in the Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programme in Nepal. Waterfront, 9:12-13, 18-19.
  25. Agua Project Report, 2002. El Salvador: AGUA Project Evaluation August–September 2002
  26. "Water Privatization in Ghana: Womens Rights Under Siege", Rudolf Amenga-Etego, Coordinator, Advocacy And Campaign Programmes, Integrated Social Development Centre, Accra-Ghana.
  27. Regmi, S.C., Fawcett, B., 1999. Integrating Gender Needs Into Drinking Water Projects in Nepal. Gender and Development, 7(3): 62-72.
  28. "Untapped Connections: Gender, Water, and Poverty", Women's Environment and Development organization.
  29. UN Water Activities
  30. Summary Report on Gender-Disaggregated Data on Water and Sanitation, 2009
  31. "Water, Sanitation and Gender"
  32. CAP-NET; GWA (2006). "Why Gender Matters: a tutorial for water managers". Delft: CAP-NET International network for Capacity Building in Integrated Water Resources Management. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  33. Krishnaraj, Maithreyi (2011). "Women and water: Issues of gender, caste, class and institutions". Economic and Political Weekly. 46 (18): 37–39.
  34. Arku, Frank S. (July 2010). "Time savings from easy access to clean water: Implications for rural men's and women's well-being". Progress in Development Studies. 10: 238 via EBSCOhost.
  35. Oberhauser, Ann M.; Fluri, Jennifer L.; Whitson, Risa; Mollett, Sharlene (2017). Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global Context. Florence: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781317408673.
  36. Ivens, Saskia (2008). "Does increased water access empower women?". Development. 51: 63–67. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100458.
  37. Dankelman, Irene (2010). Gender and Climate Change: An Introduction. New York: Taylor and Francis.
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