Women's water rights

Shiva, Vandana (1998)
In: Waterlines, vol.17, no. 1, p. 9-11

Since women's economic contributions to water provisioning are an invisible yet indispensable part of every developing society, women's water rights are the foundation of all economic development. Unlike a "patriarchal water order", in which women's water rights are eroded, water is treated as a commodity, and rights to water are defined through rights to capital or political power, an ecological and just water order, centred on women's water rights, sees water as a vital ecological resource shaped by human culture and society. Although rights to water are the inalienable right of every human, globalization, privatization and destructive forms of production threaten women's water rights. The ecological outcome of a patriarchal water order which devalues water and those who provide water to society, namely women, is water depletion caused by wasteful patterns of production and consumption. From water-prudent, women-centred technologies, humanity has moved to water-wasteful, industry- and capital-centred technologies. Globalization and privatization of water has led to its being assigned only a market value which excludes women's values and undermines women's water rights. The reduction of all value to commercial value, and the removal of all spiritual, ecological, cultural and social limits to exploitation is central to the ecological crisis. As well, the neglect of the role of natural resources in ecological processes and in people's sustenance economy, and the diversion and destruction of these resources for commodity production and capital accumulation contribute to the ecological crisis and the crisis of survival in the Third World. The solution seems to lie in giving local communities control over resources so that they have the right and responsibility to rebuild nature's economy and through it, their sustenance.

The Pani Panchayat and Mukti Sangarsh movement are leading the way for the ecological and equitable use of water. The Pani Panchayat movement, begun in 1972 in the Pune district of Maharashtra, focuses on soil and water conservation, plus strict water control. Its central idea is that, in a drought-prone area, no individual should be deprived of a rightful share of the limited water resources. The panchayats treat water as a community resource, not as private property, base people's water rights on the number of family members, not on the size of landholdings, and while members of the panchayat can decide how to use their water allocation, water consuming sugar-cane cultivation is banned. The Mukti Sangarsh movement, launched between 1982-3 in Khanapur, fought the sugar barons to ensure equitable water distribution to irrigate food crops rather than water-intensive cash crops. Community participation has excluded corruption and delay, and has shown that people can manage their own affairs. The next step is to combat man-made water scarcity and to ensure equitable water distribution through social and collective control and decision-making in which women play a full part.