3.5 Gender, Domestic Water Supply and Hygiene

Introduction

All people, men, women and children need water daily for drinking, for bathing, for the preparation of their food, for sanitation (see 3.4), and to ascertain clean cloths and a clean living space. To take care of the availability of sufficient water for all in the household, worldwide women have the major responsibility. Traditionally they manage domestic water sources and together with daughters fetch water, sometimes from far away. They also take care of most of the domestic work which makes them the ones who use more water in and around the house. However, men, and especially the male leaders, often control the water sources and make the major decisions related to location and type of facilities available. The differentiated gender relations are often reinforced by official efforts to improve domestic water supply. This is despite widespread evidence that water management function better when both women and men are actively involved in planning, construction, operation and maintenance. Only when women are directly involved in a meaningful way will solutions be found that are appropriate and sustainable. Involving women’s skills and interests in domestic water management also has the potential of addressing gender imbalances in society, leading to more equity.

Conventional approaches in the water supply sector are generally not gender-sensitive and have undervalued women’s needs and contributions to the sector. Women’s knowledge about water sources and the multiple uses of water are not given significant recognition. When women have access to water, they will have more time for child care and economic activities that will improve their families’ quality of life and their own health and wellbeing.

Hygiene is important for a sustainable and safe water supply; half of the contamination of water happens after fetching it. Water might be stored in dirty pots or water sources can become polluted, because people are watering livestock from the same source. However, while hygiene promotion and education typically focus on women and girls, this does not reach men who are often the ones to take major decisions in the household. All family members need to be aware of hygiene issues to make it work. As men and boys often serve as role models, they should be involved in hygiene promotion and education programmes. To be more gender sensitive, such programmes need to target men and boys through culturally appropriate channels.

Gender and the Drinking Water Supply Sector

The drinking water supply sector is the only water sector that paid some attention to women, because of the visibility of women carrying water over long distances in many countries. The effort to improve water supply has paved the way for a gender-based approach that takes account of changing social structures, and their effects on the way that women and men use and manage water resources. Successes have been achieved in incorporating a gender analysis into local drinking water supply programmes. A number of participatory toolkits have been developed for this purpose.

However, a lot still remains to be done:

• Gender has not been mainstreamed in the engineering and technical design of water supply systems nor in the management of the sector at all levels;
• Staff of line departments are seldom sensitised towards the needs of women and prefer to deal with their male counterparts in the villages and slums;
• A disproportionate part of investments goes to large, multi-village schemes that offer less opportunity for participation, in particular by women (GWA 2003).
• Women and men’s different skills and knowledge regarding the local water situation need to be tapped for more efficient water management and increased sustainability;
• Outcomes of gender analysis have seldom been incorporated into project designs and operation and maintenance practices;
• An integrated approach to water management is important for women at the local level who often face fierce competition from the men who prefer to use limited supplies of water first for agriculture and for their animals; and
• Hygiene is still usually considered to be women’s domain though men have an important role to play as decision-makers;
• Interests and needs of marginalised groups such as poor women and men, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, refugees in conflict situations need to be given attention.

Considering the development and provision of infrastructure, Improving access to drinking water and sanitation can make an enormous difference to the economic well being of households, as women gain time and energy to engage in economic and personal activities.

Within households and communities, men, women and children have different tasks related to water and hygiene. Unequal power relations shape the daily practices. Within households different categories of women have different responsibilities. Because of ignorance about hygiene in some cultures, daughters-in-law, who do most of the cooking, are forbidden to wash their hands or use the toilet, because it is seen as a luxury they do not deserve.

Policy Overview

National water policies, if in existence, include perhaps the mention of women’s important role and at best the division of responsibilities between women and men, but they do not have a comprehensive and consistent gender focus. Gender still does not penetrate deeply into policies and legislation (GWA, 2003).

From a social equity and diversity perspective, it can be seen that inequality remains a serious problem among various groups (socio-economic, religious, ethnic, caste), and between women and men within these groups. Yet very few policies recognise diversity and gender inequalities in combination, and do not address them in a comprehensive manner.

Water sector reforms in many countries have created many new institutions, some of which may include a gender unit. Nevertheless these do not really seem to have affected the way the institutions work. In Uganda, a Water Sector Gender Strategy was introduced in 2003 that stipulates targets for involving women at all levels of water management. While this is a laudable initiative, so far it is difficult to measure the effects of the strategy on the ground. There is need for more attention to be paid to the roles and positions of men and why they may or may not be supportive of gender equality in the sector.

Other positive examples include affirmative action policies incorporated into regulations of water ministries in for example Lesotho, Uganda and South Africa, specifying percentages of staff who should be women. The 1996 South African Constitution explicitly states that every citizen has the right to basic amounts of drinking water and sanitation, and recognises equality of men and women. In the Dominican Republic, there is a regulation of the National Water Authority, requiring that at least 40 per cent of the water committee must be women.

Key Actors in the Sector

In many countries the state has moved away from water provision and is focusing on poverty reduction policies and creating an enabling environment for other actors to provide water and sanitation. Private-sector enterprises, particularly (but not only) small-scale local service providers, have an important role to play. However, the framework in which they operate should be clearly spelt out. This is particularly so when the private sector takes over water supply systems in urban or peri-urban areas, and the interests of low-income communities require special attention. From the daily practice of GWA members messages reach us that poor women are affected most by the privatisation of water supply.

Involvement of local communities in the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance (O&M) of drinking water supply is essential for the quality and sustainability of the systems. However, within communities men tend to dominate the decision-making, even though women are the main stakeholders. NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) have key roles to play in facilitating the planning, implementation and O&M in a gender-sensitive and equitable manner. For this capacity building support is crucial.

Gender Mainstreaming in the Sector

Gender is a critical factor in ensuring efficiency and sustainability and hence overall success of water projects. Gender mainstreaming is a way to ensure that there is adequate representation of men and women in planning, operation, maintenance and management of programmes and projects.

Some of the challenges to gender mainstreaming in the sector are the following:

• There is need to have an integrated and holistic approach to rural and urban development reform, so as to empower women and enable them to influence the design and location of the services to meet their domestic and economic requirements as well as utilise their specialised expertise.
• There is also a need to involve experienced CBOs and NGOs with communities and local governments in providing water supply and supporting micro-enterprise development in the re-formulation of current policies.
• The promotion of private-sector development of natural resources should take into account women’s needs, knowledge and subsistence activities for economic development.
• There is need to build capacity of sector professionals to mainstream gender, including NGOs, CBOs, and managers.
• To enable sound water management, water and sanitation services should be provided at fair and reasonable rates. Payment systems should be flexible to reflect that women and men in different economic groups have different income sources and mobility.