Women-led Water Sector A Necessity For Water Security
The demand for water is likely to exceed the supply by 40% by 2030, according to the International Resource Panel. This could mean an estimated 2.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. Threatening to worsen the situation is the increasing frequency of heat waves, droughts, and other climate change disasters.
Water scarcity can affect every aspect of individual and social development, but women and girls, as they are the primary providers of water, bear the brunt. According to a UN Women study based on data from over 60 countries, women and girls carry the burden of water collection in 80% of water-deprived households. The more time they spend on collecting water, the less time they have for education and income generation. A study in Tanzania showed that a 15-minute reduction of time that girls spend in water collection every day increased their school attendance 12%.
Tapping the wisdom of women
However, equipping women for technical jobs, leadership positions, and entrepreneurship in the water sector can go a long way in addressing water woes of women and improving water security in every region.
A recent World Bank evaluation of 122 projects found that water projects that included women were six to seven times more effective than those that did not. It is also found that the cities like Karachi, Luanda, Kinshasa, Dhaka, and Lagos that struggle to address the challenges of water scarcity were the ones with the lowest level of women’s participation in water resource management.
As primary providers and users of water systems, women have insights into making designs of water systems user centered. Taking the water needs and priorities of women into account is inevitable to pave the way for equitable access of water. Tapping the water expertise of women who are responsible for half of the world’s food production can increase the productive use of water in agriculture, fisheries, and livestock. Inputs of women are important also to make Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) policies to address gender issues.
But the water sector today is a male dominated sector. Today, women make up less than 17 percent of the water, sanitation, and hygiene labor force and a fraction of the policymakers, regulators, management, and technical experts.
The way forward
Promoting the participation of women in the water sector across all spheres of value addition - from education to entrepreneurship, is important. STEM education for women is inevitable for them to land on technical jobs and leadership roles in policy making & regulation; design, operation, and maintenance of water systems, and management of water distribution. Scholarships can be a powerful incentive for girls to enroll in STEM programs.
Water committees and water user associations must have more women in leadership roles. The Government of India's Jal Jeevan Mission programs rightly recommends 50% of women's participation in the local Water Boards to govern and regulate water programs.
Turning to market-based solutions, it is crucial to equip women to promote and run ‘small water enterprises’ - social enterprises that provide safe drinking water to communities. These enterprises can produce twin social benefits: women empowerment and access to safe drinking water in communities. In India, several NGOs are working at the ground level transforming hundreds of women from ‘water collectors’ to ‘water entrepreneurs’ by training them in the collection, treatment and sales of clean water, especially in the settings of urban slums and water quality-affected habitations across the country.
A project jointly undertaken with USAID, Sustainable Enterprises for Water And Health (SEWAH), has resulted in creating a movement of ‘Water Aunties’ where women work as water ATM entrepreneurs and operators. The project has created over 550 women operators and more 150 entrepreneurs in 11 Indian states. As a result, the participation of women in managing Small Water Enterprises in the project areas increased from 3% in 2016 to 28% in 2020.
The success stories of women’s participation in education and water entrepreneurship are available. They prove women can be the 'Agents of Change' and propel a nation achieving water security at the community level. Scaling up and replicating these success stories is the need of the hour to promote gender equity in the access and control of water resources - and to ensure use of water in socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and economically beneficial ways.
