Water and Women’s Participation The Case of One Million Rural Cisterns Program in Serra Talhada, Pernambuco (original) (raw)
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Woman Water Keeper? Women's Troubled Participation In Water Resource Management
2015
2 community water-keeper. As in most developing countries, the governance framework of neo-liberal New Public Management (NPM) advocates equal participation of men and women in CBMS for a safe and sustainable water supply. Thus, securing the success of CBMS, and indeed the community's cash contribution, wherein the community has to act as providers and beneficiaries of public water services, now involves the inclusion women. So it is within this policy framework of CBMS for safe water provision that we examine the instance or progress of what could be considered 'women's empowerment' as community water-keepers. The current dominant trend in development of 'instrumentalizing women as key providers of development for their families, communities and countries' (Porter and Wallace, 2013) provides the context for our question-can women be the community waterkeepers? First we look at the key water actors and assess women's involvement at this level, and then we consider their role in the construction of pumps and wells. Finally their involvement and participation in Water User Committees (WUCs) is examined closely from the point of view of the villagers themselves. The field work 3 for this study comprised of a socioeconomic survey of the case study area, it being fifteen villages in a rural parish in Lwengo district. This was followed by a series of in-depth interviews and focus groups in four of the villages. The key actors or 'water service provider groups' (van Koppen et al. 2009:28) were identified in the case study area where CBMS was in place. These included water users, nongovernmental actors, and government actors. The WUGs for each water source were comprised of men, women, boys and girls with varying socio-cultural backgrounds. Water users, or what are sometimes described as 'beneficiary communities' in rural water policies are inter-alia, required to participate in 'all aspects' of community-based management (broadly classified as preconstruction and selection of an "improved" water source; construction of the water source; and postconstruction, or operation, repair and maintenance), with equal representation or involvement of women and men. The main civil-society actors were Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), particularly the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM's) who had funded the 3 The field work was undertaken with technical and financial support from the Water is Life: Amazzi Bulamu Project (WIL) which was funded through the Irish Aid/HEA Programme of Strategic CoOperation .
CHAPTER 2 - Women’s access to safe water and participation in community management of supply
Progress to secure safe water provision in rural Uganda, 2015
Poverty is rife in Uganda in both urban and rural communities. This chapter outlines the situation for poor women securing water for their households in a rural village. It gives an account of poor women's 'fluid lives' as they engage in efforts to secure water for their households and participate in water governance at community level where there are persistent water-related problems. The authors conducted a socioeconomic study of households in a poor rural parish in order to better understand women's safe water access and participation in the management of a healthy community water supply. The study findings confirm that gender remains an important analytical tool for identifying access issues, since gender relations and inequalities are evident in most of the mechanisms of access to water in this community. The chapter explores how women and children remain vulnerable to lack of access to safe water, even where there are community schemes and improved water sources in place, since for the most part powerful, formal positions such as village chairperson, water user committee member, and handpump mechanic continue to be held by men. This is despite the fact that, in the case of water user committees in particular, the 1999 National Water Policy stipulates that women should make up 50 per cent of such committees. In addition, payment arrangements, particularly maintenance and repair fees, frequently result in denying vulnerable children and women physical access to water resources whenever men, as household heads, do not pay these fees. Strategies which seek to improve women's access to safe water and power in community organization of water remain essential.
This paper discusses the invisibility of women in rural water supply and sanitation projects in the sub-district of Maubara (Timor-Leste), analyzing the relevance gender inequality when dealing with community development and participation issues. Such an analysis should allow for a greater understanding of the extent that development initiatives may perpetuate gender inequality and disadvantage of the local women. This paper is based on ongoing empirical research made in Timor-Leste using a qualitative methodological approach, and drawing on the theoretical paradigms on community participation and gender studies. In this paper, two main ideas: i) community development, especially when directed to basic needs and infrastructures, can become more successful if it integrates gender as an indispensable variable; and ii) that gender inequality, despite being rooted in cultural and social practices that have hardly changed and are deeply embedded in social institutions, may be positively influenced by the introduction of more egalitarian practices, when and if the community development principles are fully implicated in actual programs and concrete processes.
Women's access to safe water and participation in community management of supply
Poverty is rife in Uganda in both urban and rural communities. This chapter outlines the situation for poor women securing water for their households in a rural village. It gives an account of poor women's 'fluid lives' as they engage in efforts to secure water for their households and participate in water governance at community level where there are persistent water-related problems. The authors conducted a socioeconomic study of households in a poor rural parish in order to better understand women's safe water access and participation in the management of a healthy community water supply. The study findings confirm that gender remains an important analytical tool for identifying access issues, since gender relations and inequalities are evident in most of the mechanisms of access to water in this community. The chapter explores how women and children remain vulnerable to lack of access to safe water, even where there are community schemes and improved water sources in place, since for the most part powerful, formal positions such as village chairperson, water user committee member, and handpump mechanic continue to be held by men. This is despite the fact that, in the case of water user committees in particular, the 1999 National Water Policy stipulates that women should make up 50 per cent of such committees. In addition, payment arrangements, particularly maintenance and repair fees, frequently result in denying vulnerable children and women physical access to water resources whenever men, as household heads, do not pay these fees. Strategies which seek to improve women's access to safe water and power in community organization of water remain essential.
International Journal of Hydrology, 2018
This paper presents a gender-focused study about female participation in community water management committees in Rio Sabinal watershed and Cañón Del Sumidero in Chiapas, Mexico. We found that the division between public-male and private-female limited the female participation. This female participation is only possible when water management committee activities are considered of low prestige among men. Despite this, we propose that water management by women is possible in order to achieve both true gender equity and sustainable development.
Water projects and women's empowerment
WEDC CONFERENCE, 2001
During the last decade, great claims have been made for both the theory and the practice of women's increased participation in the management of domestic water resources. This is said to have contributed both to increasing project efficiency and effectiveness as well as to empowering women ). An extensive analysis of policy and project literature reveals that the domestic water sector interprets the following forms of women's participation in water projects at the community level as contributing to women's empowerment as well as to project efficiency:
Women, Water and Development: Issues and Challenges-The Studies on Global Perspective
isara solutions, 2020
Water is one of the most important necessities of human life. In terms of utility gender-based use of water is seen throughout the world. women play important or can say major role in conduct, arrangement and conservation of water which follows one of the internationally principal of water management. Women plays crucial role from the collection, utilization and manage the distribution of water within the family members specifically in rural areas. So, in development and water management policies should look towards the women interest. But water scarcity still exists, and millions of women did not access water to fulfill their basic needs. the objective of the study is to find the involvement of women in water supply and sanitation from the traditional past which plays major role in the formation of projects and programs to improve them. The potential role of women helps to execute different stages of a project such as planning, construction, maintenance, and evaluation depend up on cultural and technological diversity. The benefit of women involvement helps to achieve wider developmental goals in both direct and indirect ways. From the literature reviews theorizing data found in terms of gender based involvement in water policies without knowing the ground reality, for that it will be difficult to find out which policies will be beneficial for the poor women to get access of safe and clean water easily.
2017
Greater participation of women in water management and decision-making is expected to improve outcomes for both women and the wider community. Global evidence indicates that women's participation in Water User Committees (WUCs) has been limited; yet their involvement in management has correlated with more effective water systems. This analysis of water inventory data from Vanuatu considers how women's participation in WUCs affects water management and system functionality. Women represent only 16 per cent of committee membership; however, their involvement in key WUC roles was associated with more effective water management, including regular meetings and revenue collection, and improved functioning of water systems. This evidence of women's involvement is proving useful in advocacy efforts to improve the gender balance in WUCs, and targets for female membership are being considered for inclusion in water supply legislation.
Women’s Meaningful Participation in Water Security
This rapid literature review explores gender transformative practices and the meaningful participation of women in water security. There is large and growing literature base on gender and water, with most of it coming from a health, or sanitation and hygiene perspective, and most focussing on access, quality, and women as vulnerable water users and or women and water in rural communities (de Silva, Veilleux & Neal, 2018). There has been a growth in focus on women’s participation in water governance, and particularly a more recent focus on meaningful participation. However, as yet, the literature is much more limited in this latter area, and the practical advances in women’s meaningful participation (“gender transformative processes”) in water security have also been more limited than progress in other areas (Ozano, et al., 2022). This rapid review found a lot of literature focusses on a few countries including: Kenya, India, and Nepal. As de Silva, et al. (2018, p.212) explain in th...
International journal of social sciences, 2014
This paper focuses on the interface between gender roles in water provision and use at household and community level and its relationship with women’s practical and strategic gender needs. Data were collected in nine villages in the districts of Kondoa and Mpwapwa, Dodoma region in Tanzania. Results have shown that women gain more knowledge on the appropriateness of water for consumptive and productive uses while pursuing their reproductive roles in the provision and use of domestic water at the household level. However, social-cultural context limit women’s participation during designing and planning of water services at community level; ultimately their preferences and perceptions on the appropriateness of the domestic water are not integrated in the water projects. We recommend systematic analysis on the interdependence between women’s domestic water needs, their involvement in community management and the bigger picture of gender roles in society.