Water priorities of women and men often differ

Updated - Tuesday 09 August 2005

Water is vital, not only for drinking, cooking and household use, but for vegetable gardens, farming and almost all economic activity.  Competition for water leads to disputes, drives marginal farmers into poverty and leaves the weakest without the means to sustain life and health.

 Limited access to water is an insuperable obstacle to escaping poverty. Rural women spend hours each day fetching water. In towns, the poor pay more for water than the better off with piped supplies.

 The Asian Development Bank estimates that one in three Asians does not have access to a safe drinking water source within 200 meters of home, and one in two Asians lacks adequate sanitation.

 Women and men both need water – but their plans for it may be very different. In a north Benin project women and men welcomed plans for boreholes in their villages. However, women wanted to use their extra time to develop market gardens at home, improve food security and sell the surplus, while men wanted the women to help work their land. A follow up survey showed that more time was indeed spent working the land than on growing vegetables. [1]

Research and experience from the Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) demonstrate that when women and men are involved in making decisions on how to share, supply and protect water, it can be used efficiently and fairly.

In Ecuador, women lead the Indian community efforts to strengthen canals and water rights in the Andean region. Inés Chapi, elected as an irrigation board member in Licto near Riobamba, manages the irrigation system and trains local people to irrigate. She is also fighting to defend the water rights from encroachment and from takeover by commercial interests. [2]

Ambuya Mukwereza was employed at a Zimbabwe Forestry Commission nursery where she learnt how to grow orange, guava and plum trees. After she was helped to dig a well at her homestead and install a rope pump, she now runs a thriving business selling saplings to other families who have family wells.

Sanitation especially important for women

Research showed that women in Cambodia, Indonesia and Viet Nam put a greater value than men on household toilets. The Water and Sanitation Program suggested that women should be treated as ‘valued customers’ and given a greater voice in how and where toilets are planned and installed. It also showed that the extra work to keep toilets clean falls on women in the family. [3]

Sanitation can be the factor that decides whether a girl stays in school. The Forum for African Women found that more than half of girls who drop out from the top end of primary school do so because of lack of sanitary pads, separate toilets and easy access to water. [4]

Gender issues are clearly a vital factor in encouraging development and economic activity. However, introducing a ‘gender dimension’ too often just means holding meetings for women, peripheral to the real planning process.

Even in South Africa, where 50% of the membership of decision-making  committees must be women, Barbara Schreiner, Deputy Director-General at DWAF, says: “It is easier to write good policy than to turn it into reality.”  The Water Research Commission (WRC) in South Africa conducted a study in four villages close to the town of Peddie. Researcher Priscilla Monyai, found: “The project was all about providing water, and the gender aspect was just an afterthought.” Mr. Jako, the steering committee chairperson agreed. "People were so excited to get water. When these other issues like gender were raised, you found that people were impatient. [5]

As Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, South Africa, put it:  "Poor men and women have much to teach us, if we can only find the time and the humility to listen ... poor people are saying that they need water not only for drinking, cooking and washing, but also for productive purposes. We must hear the desire of poor households to lift themselves up out of poverty, and the role that water can play in this process". [6]

[1] Benin: Borehole has unforeseen effects for women, Source Bulletin, Jan 2004

[2] Ecuador: an action research programme supports indigenous water rights, Source Bulletin, Aug 2004

[3] Women place a higher value on household toilets, Source Bulletin, Feb 2003

[4] Uganda, Kenya: lack of sanitaries force girls out of school, Source, 9 Mar 2004

[5] Women and water: how gender policy is working out in South African villages, Source, 9 Mar 2004

[6] IRC ... [et al.] (2003). Responding to poverty : promoting productive uses of water at the household level

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