Chapter 4: Water GLOBAL GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK Energy Chapter 2


Recognizing the gendered dimensions of water, sanitation and hygiene


Clean water and sanitation are the basis of life and livelihoods, social capacity, health, and environmental sustainability. Yet many millions of people in the world lack even the most rudimentary means of obtaining safe water, while billions do not have sanitation facilities that are protected from outside contamination (UN 2015; UN 2014; UN-Women 2016; UNICEF and WHO 2014). Water and sanitation access, demand, provision, priority, health, organization and policy are gendered, even if this is manifested in different ways in different places. The gendered dimensions of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector are increasingly reflected in public policy agendas, but concrete results have been partial and uneven.


The hydro-social cycle


Until the 1990s, water management concepts drew heavily on the physical sciences. Water was generally thought of as a physical resource whose provision was determined, for the most part, by the hydrological cycle and physical infrastructure. However, there is growing understanding that a “hydro-social cycle” also exists (Linton and Budds 2014; Budds 2008; Swyngedouw 2006). Access to and control over water, and its management and use, are shaped as much by social factors (including gendered power relations) as by physical ones, and every stage in the hydro-social cycle involves different demands, risks and benefits for women and men (Joshi 2015; Zwarteveen et al. 2012; Seager et al. 2009; Sultana 2007; UN-Water 2006). The gendered dimensions of both the hydrological and hydro-social cycles will be disrupted by global climate change, in ways that are both predictable and unpredictable (UNFCCC 2016; World Bank 2016).


Policy and legislation 54


The need for gender equality in provision of clean water and sanitation has been recognized in numerous national policies and multilateral agreements since the late 1970s. However, gender analysis is still limited overall and has been introduced unevenly. A 2012 UN- Water report on national water and sanitation policies revealed that fewer than 40% of the 64 responding countries included specific equity provisions in national


strategy or funding decisions that addressed women’s right to water, and fewer than 20% had applied or implemented such provisions in regard to women’s human right to sanitation (WHO and UN-Water 2012). Only a few countries had national policies that included specific provisions to meet women’s needs, including menstrual hygiene management (Figure 2.2.1).


It can be very difficult or dangerous for women and girls to attempt to meet their sanitation needs in public spaces, or even in their homes or the communities where they live. In most countries public sanitary facilities tend to be regulated at the local level. Such facilities are inadequate – especially for women and girls – almost everywhere in the world, including in


markets, train and bus stations, and public event venues. The problem is compounded for women and girls living in slums and informal settlements without access


to improved drinking water sources and


sanitation facilities, or to durable housing, sufficient living area and security of tenure.


Figure 2.2.1: GLAAS survey of governments: Do national sanitation and drinking-water policies/ strategies include specific provisions to meet women’s needs, including menstrual hygiene management?


10 15 20 25 30 35


0 5


Yes, and refers to menstrual hygiene


Sanitation Drinking-water Source: WHO and UN-Water (2012)


Yes, but no


reference to menstrual hygiene


No specific provision


Number of countries


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