A place for women in the world of water

This week East London in South Africa played host to a major international conference on gender, water and development. Water expert and conference chair, Barbara Schreiner, spoke to Michelle Galloway about why it is important that women play a more active role in managing this precious resource.

Mma Tshepo in Cullinan. Photo courtesy of Mma Tshepo Khumbane Foundation

Tshepo Khumbane, or Mma Tshepo as she is known, lives on a smallholding outside Cullinan, near Pretoria. Rainfall in the region is highly seasonal, yet her garden is green all year round. Over the past few years, through the foundation she has created, she has become an evangelist for better household water management. By promoting simple strategies for collecting and using water, like rooftop rainwater collection, she has helped many rural South African women to become self-sufficient in fruits and vegetables. Tshepo calls women “custodians of water”. They use and regulate this precious resource, and it is women who are usually the most active in food gardening.

The Cullinan experiment is impressive, but sadly all too rare. For many rural communities in Africa and Asia, collecting and managing water for home use and domestic gardening is “women’s work”. Yet women seldom have a say in how water is managed or how water infrastructure is planned. This lamentable situation, says Barbara Schreiner, chair of South Africa’s Water Research Commission, needs to change.

“Women should have equal opportunities in all areas including water,” she says “It’s the morally correct thing and the wise thing to enhance economic development.”

Schreiner emphasises that the issue goes way beyond the familiar problems of domestic water access and sanitation. Whilst accepting that the daily chore of fetching household water is an onerous burden for many rural women, access to water for agriculture is equally important.

“Women farmers in Africa can contribute significantly to food production; at the household level and for society at large. But they need the access to the same resources as men, be they land, water, finance, or access to markets and transportation,” explains Schreiner. “With water the poor can grow food, run small businesses and create income opportunities. Women are still the poorest of the poor. It’s clear that water access directly intersects with issues of gender and poverty eradication.”

It’s estimated that giving women the same access to resources and rural employment as men could increase farm yields by up to a third. This could significantly reduce the number of hungry people in the world.

But how can that access be achieved?

Enter a poor rural community in Africa or Asia and chances are you will find a public pump, tap or well. Here local people gather to collect water for all manner of uses: in their homes, their vegetable gardens – even for their livestock. But you might equally find government-built irrigation canals being used for the same purposes. “Both systems may have been well designed with specific outcomes in mind,” says Schreiner. “But neither adequately fulfils all the many needs that local water users may have.”

“We need an approach that takes account of poor people’s multiple water needs as a starting point of planning. By designing cost-effective, multi-purpose infrastructure, we can have a positive impact on people’s health and livelihoods.”

Research led by the Pretoria office of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has shown that this more inclusive approach to community water management does pay dividends. In a survey of good practice published earlier this year, IWMI researchers and their partners highlighted water supply among four villages in the Adi Daero catchment in Tigray, Ethiopia. Working with an international donor, the communities planned, installed and now run a complex water scheme that includes a small reservoir, a canal with an irrigation scheme, and piped residential water. That community involvement at inception is vital, says Schreiner, if water services are to be long lasting and effective.

“The problem is that water management is still largely male-dominated. Women are not involved in decision-making. That has to change,” says Barbara. “Equitable access to water will have a significant impact on the economy and wealth creation in Africa. Freeing up women’s time has many consequences – education, economic opportunities, family planning, improved health – overall development.”

“In sub-Saharan Africa only about half of people have water within 15 minutes of their dwelling,” says Barbara. “This falls to 42% in rural areas. In some countries the figures are much, much worse.”

In South Africa water access and sanitation has been a major political focus for the past 20 years and is enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

“The SA government’s goal is to have potable water within 200 metres of each household,” says Barbara.  “Substantial progress has been made.  The government has delivered water to as many as 14 million people since 1994. The situation has improved but that’s no reason for complacency – there remain real problems.”

“Most of all we need to put women at the heart of the water sector in Africa,” concludes Schreiner. “and generate the necessary momentum to take these issues forward.”