Gender & Water

Women and men share different roles and responsibilities in regards to water use and management. These differing roles influence how men and women interact with resources and how changes in the resources impact men and women differently. It is important to understand these gender differences and develop an action plan to reduce any negative impacts of these differences.

Poverty disproportionally impacts women and many of world’s poorest areas are in regions faced with water scarcity (IFAD 2001). Women play a critical role in water resources for both domestic and productive uses. Women and girls in developing countries are responsible for travelling long distances to collect water for domestic purposes. This role requires them to walk on average 6 km a day (UNFPA 2002), although this distance increases as water becomes scarce or contaminated (IFAD 2007). The journey to collect water forges social relationships within the community; however, it can also place women and children in unsafe and hazardous environments which impact their overall health and welfare.

Women are also responsible for sanitation and hygiene and are tasked with caring for household members who become sick from water-born disease. The World Bank (1996) attributes water and sanitation-related diseases to higher health costs, lost wages, and lower productivity. Due to inherent gender relations and barriers, women are disproportionally impacted by natural disasters, including floods. They suffer high death rates during disasters and experience barriers to recovering from disasters (UN Water 2006).

The presence of safe and reliable water sources close to home reduces the time women spend walking to collect water and allows them to use these time for other activities. As a result, women have a vested interest in using rainfall run-off or irrigation water (IFAD 2007).

Incorporating Gender into Water Projects

Experience from the World Bank has demonstrated that incorporating gender dimensions into project design and implementation improves the overall project performance (Fong et. al 1996). Similarly, demand driven, participatory projects also increase the success of water projects.

The following lessons learned were documented in the World Bank Toolkit on Gender and Sanitation:

Lesson 1: Gender is a central concern in water and sanitation.

Lesson 2: Ensuring both women’s and men’s participation improves project performance.

Lesson 3: Specific, simple mechanisms must be created to ensure women’s involvement.

Lesson 4: Attention to gender needs to start as early as possible.

Lesson 5: Gender analysis is integral to project identification and data collection.

Lesson 6: A learning approach is more gender-responsive than a blueprint approach.

Lesson 7: Projects are more effective when both women’s and men’s preferences about “hardware” are addressed.

Lesson 8: Women and men promote project goals through both their traditional and non-traditional roles.

Lesson 9: Non-governmental organisations and especially women’s groups can facilitate a gender-balanced approach.

Lesson 10: Gender-related indicators should be included when assessing project performance.

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