Rural Women Securing Household Water in Jordan

Submitted by: Rakin Village-Jordan

Introduction:

If a country’s fate is determined by its natural resources, then the future of Jordan will mainly depend on the optimal management of its scarce water resources. Jordan is one of the world’s ten most water scarce countries (Global water assessment report 2003). The water consumption per capita in Jordan is around 170 cubic meters per annum.

Moreover, Jordan is located in the Middle East, an area characterized by volatile socio-political dynamics. Indeed, one of the major reasons behind Jordan’s water scarcity lies in its rapid un-natural population increase due to refugees’ influx from the region’s main military conflicts in 1948, 1967 and 1991.

The Jordanian rural communities suffer most from lack of water, and they are being challenged on daily basis with the task of securing clean water and sanitation for households, farms and small businesses.

Efforts in community-based water management are always a major priority in Jordanian water policy. Experiences at the community level for the optimal use of water resources are spreading all over the country based on successful demonstrations.

One of the successful initiatives in community based, and gender mainstreamed water management projects was introduced by the joint activities of the local women community of the village of Rakin with the support of GEF Small Grants Programme.

The following case study focuses on the efforts by the Rakin Women Society to manage a revolving loan system for establishment of water cisterns and water harvesting measures in RakinVillage that benefited many women and secured water resources in households, with a great degree of sustainability.

Environmental Settings:

Rakin is the center of a cluster of villages and small towns located in the south west of Karak Governorates South of Jordan. Rakin has a total population of 5500. According to Karak social development directorate data, Rakin is classified as a poor village on the basis of level of incomes of the population, which relies heavily on army and government employments.

The basic services (water, electricity, telecommunication and roads) are available. Two secondary schools and one elementary school form the educational base of the area. The topography of the region shows areas with slopes as steeps as 23-30%. Rainfall is in the range of 250-300 mm annually.

The village economy is based on services in the state’s public institutions and agriculture. The main agricultural products of the village are:

• Fruit trees orchards: mainly olives and Almonds.
• Field crops: barely and wheat.
• Forest crops: 600 dunums of old forest and 500 dunumsthat where recently planted.
• Herb's planting
• Livestock: 15000 heads of sheep and goats.
• Good experience in apiculture (bee-keeping).

Rakin women charitable society was established in 1991 and aims at improvement of the social, economical, cultural and health conditions of the rural women in Rakin.

The Challenge:

The topography of the area, human pressure on land and inappropriate land use practices, are some of the reasons that contributed to increased degeneration of land and increased soil erosions, resulting in a rapid loss of productive lands. Due to overgrazing great proportion of the annual rainfall is lost as run –off.

Women are bearing the responsibility of household management, with a basic reliance on water gathering and utilization. Most of the households in the area depend on their own cultivation of basic food supply, with the availability of water resources making the essential ingredient in household food security.

Insufficient supply of water for human consumption, livestock and irrigation is considered a major problem. Rakin gets piped water once every two weeks for six hours only, which does not meet even the inhabitants’ basic requirements. Water has to be bought at a very high price. Without cisterns as storage facilities, the households are not able to store all the water that is delivered by tankers even though families have to pay for it all.

Project Evolution:

This basic need of water provided the justification for Rakin women society to tackle this challenge. The Rakin society gained first grant from the GEF Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP) to install water cisterns and water harvesting measures in households. The success of this project in the society of Rakin village was evident to the point that enormous applications for loans were presented to the Society’s board. The project was based on a 66% grant repayment system that eventually exhausted the financial resources provided in the first phase.

A second phase was initiated in 1998 with the support of the GEF Small Grants Programme in Jordan, and the continuous technical assistance from the GTZ Watershed management project. This new project, however, was based on a 100% repayment revolving loans system to meet the needs of more than 150 households applying for such loans.

The project stakeholders:

Rakin women society implemented the project with the technical assistance of Watershed Management Project supported by GTZ. A steering committee was formed to be responsible for the implementation of the activities, such as training issues, follow up of the loans and repayments, as well as selecting the beneficiaries according to a certain criteria, and overall organization of the groups.

Project Results

The loaning system was structured to provide a 100% repayment to ensure the sustainability of the project resources, and seriousness of the individual projects.

The main impacts and results of the project were:

1. Securing a sustainable resource of clean water in households to provide for irrigation and food security.
2. Reducing the cost of buying water from tankers, and the cost of the water consumption bill in households while increasing water consumption rate.
3. Empowerment of women in the Rakin society in being responsible for bringing additional resources to households and families. This contributed to increasing their status as decision-making partners in households.
4. Capacity development and knowledge acquisition by women in managing the grants.

Lessons Learnt:

1. The project proved that the 100% payback system for loans is sustainable and ensures that the capital money could be distributed to a wide range of beneficiaries, and will not be exhausted in a short term. The high payback ratio could be attributed to the fact that women play a leading role in managing the household economy.
2. The project proved the high efficiency of implementation, and management by rural women provided that they gain the basic support and capacity development needed in project management. Involving women directly contributes to enhancing the project’s effectiveness and sustainability.
3. The project proved the immediate positive impacts and benefits for local communities at the house hold economy level. This has been manifested mainly in securing sustainable water resources in a water-scarce area.
4. The loaning system supported, in addition to water cisterns, bee keeping activities and solar cells installations. It is important always to diversify the income-generation activities to sustain the impact of the loaning systems.
5. Community-based participatory water conservation projects are an essential component of any concerted effort of a water-scarce country in conservation of its water resources.