Water Seekers, Carriers and Keepers: The Global and Gender Divide

Abstract

Not having access to sufficient and safe water for basic needs is a feature of extreme poverty. Inadequate water supply and sanitation continues to be the most harmful water risk for people and globally accounts for the largest economic losses. Although gender statistics on water are scarce and scattered, it is safe to say that the larger burden still falls on women and girls, who are the traditional water seekers and carriers in secluded communities and least developed countries, but generally do not have a voice in decision-making concerning water supply and management. It is argued that the water-gender-development nexus (SDG#5 – SDG#6 interface) is a promising and largely untapped connection to reach those furthest behind, in particular through the meaningful involvement of women at all levels and stages of water management processes as called for in Dublin Principle 3 for Integrated Water Resources Management of 1992. Voices of women from Sub-Saharan Africa, a region where water and gender divides are among the highest in the world, illustrate the ingredients and processes of women’s empowerment and their inclusion in water governance, and how addressing water in conjunction with gender has a positive and lasting impact on community development as a whole. A comprehensive water-gender-sustainable development strategy gives due consideration to women’s civil society, whose potential has been only marginally utilised to date.