Women in water management : the need for local planning

This article, based on a paper delivered in India at a 1994 seminar on The Role of Women in Water Management, begins with the point that women's central importance in water use is not reflected in village or household level surveys for water-resource development because women are rarely asked about their work and use of water, most enumerators are men who make assumptions about women's relation to and their use of water, women's relationship to water is often non-monetary, women are seldom organized as water users and are often ignored, women are conditioned to under-value the work they do, data are produced by males with male users in mind, new water schemes often assume large unpaid inputs from women, and male interviewees are assumed to speak for the whole family or community. The article is an outcome of the Foundation for Public Interest (FPI)'s experience in the move toward community based water-source development and management projects promoted by the government of India and of Gujarat in which the active role of women, as main users, is seen as central. It outlines FPI's involvement in water-resource development projects and in women's economic development for over a decade. It concludes that local water-resource planning is the most effective way of involving women and FPI has been concerned with the devolution of responsibilities (matched with funds and capacities) to local units of government so that women can be more active and effective in water management. The article outlines the mixed results of these policy shifts due to the neglect of local initiatives, resource limitations, the failure to build local capacity, poor operation and maintenance, and the difficulty in generating local investments. The article also calls for inter-sectoral coordination and thorough reorganization in water resource management which promotes women's role in local water planning and management.