Water for Sale?

This week, I will be focusing on the issue of the unequal burden of water privatisation on women. Water privatisation is, unarguably, one of the water crisis’ most contended topics although its mostly negative impact on the livelihoods of women is rarely discussed. I thought the best way to approach this would be to critically analyse a case study - after some research, I came across a paper by Rebecca Brown entitled ‘Unequal Burden: Water Privatisation and Human Rights in Tanzania’ which seemed to encapsulate both sides of the story. 

Brown starts by setting the context by describing how the social system in Tanzania, as in many African countries, emphasises the role of women as being responsible for the provision and maintenance of water in the household. Hence, the lack of presence of a fair public water system often has a disproportionate impact on women since ‘they are the ones who generally have to fill in when the state abdicates its social service responsibilities’ (Yamin 2005,1233). Brown identifies a number of shortcomings to the mechanisms behind water privatisation - namely the application of a business model approach to such a human-rights based issue as water provision. Although Brown’s general conclusion is that water privatisation puts an unequal burden on women, she also clearly states that this is a result of the inherent gender discrimination in African societies, whereby women are sacrificing their education, health and livelihood to ensure sufficient water is available for their household (as has been discussed in previous posts in the blog). 

Nonetheless, progress is under way. In the past couple of years, there have been an increase in civil societies in Tanzania speaking out against water privatisation and its impact oh human rights; and prominently on the human rights of women. One particular concern they expressed was contract renegotiation, where private water providers bid low on contracts and then demand renegotiation by stating they had “inadequate information”. This has especially negative consequences on severely poor countries like Tanzania, where the livelihoods of individuals are reliant on this source of water supply. 

Brown does not seem to offer concrete solutions to the issue (apart from suggesting an immediate halt in water privatisation which seems unlikely at this stage). My suggested solutions would be to involve women in the decision-making process - from the designing of the project to the implementation and monitoring. However, I will be addressing the exact importance of women entering the spaces of social, political and economic power in more detail on my next post. Watch this space...

"Capacity Building" as Key to Gender Integration

This week, I will be exploring the importance of “capacity building” in optimising the impact of water initiatives. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term, I provide a general definition below taken from ‘The Africa Water Page’:

"Capacity building is the process whereby a community equips itself to undertake the necessary functions of governance and service provision in a sustainable fashion. The process of capacity building must be aimed at both increasing access to resources and to changing the power relationships between the parties involved. Capacity building is not only constrained to officials and technicians but must also include the general awareness of the local population regarding their services and development in general."

The chart above shows the different components involved in the process of "capacity-building" and how these can be measured using a threshold (or benchmark). 

In general, most government-funded water projects which include some element of training often target water resources specialists - very few programmes are actually aimed at educating communities about how to best manage their water supply. This has especially significant consequences for women; who are the main managers of water supply in the household. In my opinion, every technology-driven water and sanitation initiative should also come hand in hand with community-based schemes in order to ensure its sustainability.

In her paper for the Women for Water Partnership, Prabha Khosla contends that what makes capacity-building in the water sector different is the need for initiatives that focus on both women and men, as well as women-only constituencies. She argues this will also require trainers that are engaged with the notion of gender equality and women empowerment and applauds approaches articulated in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) which specifically include gender analysis. She expressed the need for water organisations to hire gender specialists as part of their core staff - this would allow for capacity-building on gender to be perceived as an ongoing programme and not a one-time activity.

On the more practical level, there has been an increasing number of initiatives which have made an effort to integrate the community in water and sanitation programmes. An example is the Ghana Rural Water Project (Poku Sam, 2006), which aimed to address a serious infestation of guinea worm and poor access to potable drinking water. The project, which was initially technology-driven and externally sourced, was then adapted to include a more demand sensitive approach and was rated as having a high community involvement. The fact that village members, and especially women, were more aware of how the new water facilities worked as well as being able to have a say in the development of the project contributed to gender integration in the community. Moreover, the project has also lead to an increase in the education of girls in the community mostly owing to the hygiene and sanitation training they received as part of the initiative.

"Sanitation Deficit"

Although water and sanitation goals are often though about as interdependent, numerous studies have pointed out to the “sanitation deficit”, especially in light of the recently concluded Millennium Development Goals. Hence, I thought I would address this issue separately from access to water under the topic of gender equality. 

While the MDG regarding access to safe drinking water and sanitation was officially targeted in 2010, there are still more than 2.2 million people in developing countries which die from diseases associated with inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. The cause of death is mostly by (easily prevented) waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid. The newly introduced Sustainable Development Goals dedicate SDG 6 to the promotion of “equitable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation”, with sub-target 6.2 outlining “special attention to the needs of women and girls”.

In an article written for ‘The Conversion’, Professor Sarah Jewitt studied nine schools in Kisumu (Kenya’s third largest city), by interviewing girls regarding their hygienic concerns. 

In the nine districts, both pupils and teachers pin-pointed menstruation-related issues as one of the main causes of absenteeisms within girls with many schoolgirls admitting they felt “embarrassed” and almost forced to stay at home. The somewhat promising finding was that, if girls had access to sanitary towels, absenteeism from school would dramatically drop. However, these often cost between 65 and 120 Kenyan Shillings (US$0.79–$1.45) and are unaffordable to families earning the average Kenyan daily income of just above US$1 per day. 

Nonetheless, even those who do attend school often miss out socially and academically, says Professor Jewitt. In the conducted interviews, several girls admitted to sitting in the classroom all day in case they leaked, preventing them from going out to play during break. Others also refused to answer questions in lessons since they must stand up to do so and were worried other pupils might spot the stain on their uniforms since most uniforms are light in colour. 

In some cases, even if girls with access to reliable sanitary protection were more likely to attend school, this access came at a high price. Two head teachers disclosed that it was not rare that girls would agree to engage in sexual relations with older men in exchange for sanitary products. 

Practical solutions might include a shift in etiquette to allow girls to answer questions while seated and take toilet breaks without punishment, or the provision of painkillers for menstrual cramps alongside changing the uniform colour to a darker tone. However, in my opinion, the real solution lies behind the need to address the broader challenges regarding cultural norms and gender roles in Africa. This should also come hand in hand with the breaking down of the cultural silence which surrounds menstruation and puberty in many regions of Africa. 

The Fight for Female Farmers

Even conventional discussions on gender and water quickly reach the conclusion that issues not apparently related to water are at the root cause of the problem - one of them being women’s limited access to land (van Koppen 2002). In my opinion, lack of access to land is one of the main underlying causes of women’s limited access to water: a recent World Bank study shows that this is the key reason why female-headed households are more prone to poverty. In many developing countries, land ownership is a precondition for access to water. 

Even though women are usually considered domestic water users while men are viewed as productive water users, women have an increasingly crucial input into income-generating activities which demand a reliable water supply. Not only are their responsible for food production, they also have a central duty in establishing the sustainable use of resources in small-scale fishing communities, as well as the management of watersheds and wetlands.

By recognising the role of women as land holders, this would increase their access to irrigation water for agricultural purposes and positively contribute to the development agenda. However, this is still not the case - numerous instances have been documented in which female farmers were bluntly excluded in the construction of new irrigation schemes (Zwarteveen 1994, Merrey and Bakisvar 1998). 

Upadhyay (2004) argues that access of women to water for productive use not only increases their income earning potential but also helps strengthen their bargaining positions. The author focuses her research on the Banaskantha district in India, where she concludes that the present practice of water allocation entails a great deal of inequality. Productive uses of water which are mostly employed by women - such as livestock rearing, vegetable farming and brick-making - are often included in the less-visible informal sector and marginalised from the water allocation priorities. In turn, this often results in conflict amongst household members which further limits their future decision-making abilities due to the inherent patriarchal customs. The solution, as suggested by Upadhyay, is to implement appropriate institutional support and access to resources. 

The recognition of women’s needs for water as productive users will strengthen their bargaining position within the household as well as increase their independent entitlements which is essential in achieving overall gender equality.