Chapter 4: Water GLOBAL GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK Energy Chapter 2 Box 2.2.1: Involving women in water and sanitation management at the local level in Kyrgyzstan


In most Kyrgyz villages the condition of the water supply deteriorated following the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2002 the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) initiated a project to improve the rural water supply by establishing community-based drinking water users’ unions (CDWUUs) in rural villages in northern Kyrgyzstan. Communities were required to make a 5% cash contribution towards rehabilitation of their water systems, which was made possible through a World Bank loan. CDWUUs took responsibility for operating and maintaining drinking water supplies in the villages and for financial management, including calculation and collection of drinking water fees. While overall representation of women was low, the most successful CDWUUs were those in which women were part of the management team as bookkeepers, water quarter leaders or CDWUU chairs (UNDP and WECF 2014; Wardle 2010).


which includes household tasks and childcare in addition to income generation


or home-based agricultural


production. Because of their inequitable upbringing and unequal access to education, as well as cultural and social norms, women often have less experience expressing their views confidently. In addition, they may be reluctant to invest time in participation, based on a strategic calculation that they have little to gain from doing so – particularly if “participation” is limited to token consultation. In the context of access to water and sanitation, decision-makers seldom take women’s roles and needs into consideration even though this can be shown to work (Box 2.2.1).


Water use, access, quality, production and distribution


Water poverty, time poverty, access and use


Globally, about 80% of people living in urban areas (and considerably fewer in rural areas) have access to piped drinking water on the premises (UNICEF and WHO 2015). On a smaller scale there is great variability: between 2000 and 2008, 84% of households in Asia, 90% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 97% in Eastern Europe were within a short distance (“15-minute access”) of a water source. Households in Sub-Saharan Africa, overall, had the lowest rates of 15-minute water access: only 74% of urban households in this region were within that distance of a drinking water source, and this share dropped to 42% among rural households. In Eastern Africa 15-minute access to drinking water was particularly low (46% of households). Fewer than one-quarter of households in Burundi and Mozambique (fewer than 15% in Eritrea, Uganda and Somalia) had 15-minute water access.


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Women and men everywhere are affected by water availability, access and quality, but in different ways due


to prevailing gender roles and norms. In settings where water has to be collected from a source outside the home, women and girls have the main responsibility for collecting it. A 2012 survey showed women were primarily responsible for water collection in 62% of households in Sub-Saharan Africa where water needed to be collected outside the home, and girls for another 9%. In 25 Sub-Saharan countries women spent a combined total of at least 16 million hours per day, men 6 million, and children 4 million collecting drinking water (Figure 2.2.2) (UNICEF and WHO 2012). A 2013 study reported that in Pakistan, women spent an average of 27 hours a month (approximately 15% of their monthly work time) collecting water for household use (Agénor and Canuto 2013).


The time burden of water collection has serious ripple effects throughout women’s and girls’ lives. For school- age girls, time spent on water collection competes with the time they can spend on schooling. Evidence from around the world shows that water-related chores keep girls out of school (Figure 2.2.3) (UNICEF 2012; Haggart and McGuire n.d). Time spent collecting water diminishes women’s overall ability to control their own time and participate in other pursuits, whether waged work, recreation, cultural activities or political involvement. It also represents a tremendous economic loss: in Sub-Saharan Africa 40 billion working hours are lost every year in water collection; across India it has been estimated that women spend 150 million work days per year fetching and carrying water, the equivalent of national loss of income of 10 billion rupees (some US$160 million) (WaterAid et al. 2015). The impact of women reclaiming their time should not be underestimated. Economic surveys show women typically reinvest up to 90% of their income within their families, improving family health and nutrition and access to schooling for children (WaterAid et al. 2015).


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