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What
is good for women is good for all
This
Briefing Note provides evidence to demonstrate how
women's empowerment and the improvement of water
supply, sanitation facilities and hygiene practice
are inextricably linked and highlights some of the
benefits of placing women and their concerns at the
centre of decision-making about such interventions
Compiled
by: Julie Fisher of WEDC
Headline
lessons
The
benefits of making women central to water supply,
sanitation and hygiene improvements are:
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Involving
women in planning and management,
administration of funds, operation and
maintenance and awareness-raising of safe
hygiene practice leads to improved levels of
service and better health outcomes.
-
There
is better health for all, due to women's
knowledge of local practice and involvement in
group initiatives to bring about behaviour
change in the community.
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Women
have greater privacy and therefore dignity
associated with menstruation, personal hygiene
and safety.
-
Women
enjoy better health and well-being through safer
childbirth, less risk of injury from carrying
heavy loads and attempting to reach dangerous
water sources.
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Disabled
people experience improvements in their personal
hygiene, health and independence.
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Girls'
school attendance increases and as a consequence
female literacy levels improve.
-
The
status of women is raised as they develop skills
and knowledge that present opportunities for
employment and participation in more public
roles.
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Greater
possibilities for income generation mean that
women can contribute more effectively to the
household budget or can be financially
independent.
Better
Services for All
As women have
the main responsibility for household water supply,
the home and childcare, it is they who are most
likely to know what services are required and where
they should be located. Getting these important
details right means better services and quality of
life for households and communities.
The
planning stage
The
results of involving women at the design and
planning stages include reduced corruption,
increased transparency, better financial management
and empowering women by example.
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In Kraaipan,
South Africa, Jacobeth Mabeo and the female
sanitation committee have responsibility for the
village sanitation project, which covers
planning, construction, health and hygiene
training, awareness raising and financial
management. The committee has extended the
service to more households than the original
funding allowed, by building the toilets more
cheaply and using an external subsidy. Health
and hygiene training is now extended to other
villages.
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The Rakin
Women’s Society, Jordan, aims to improve the
social, economic, cultural and health conditions
of local rural women. Women have implemented a
project with the technical assistance of the
Watershed Management Project to install water
cisterns and water harvesting, funded under a
66% grant repayment system. There have been many
benefits: securing sustainable clean water
supplies for irrigation resulting in increased
food security; reducing costs of buying water
from tankers, while still increasing consumption
rates; empowering women to make a greater
contribution to household resources; and
developing their capacity for financial
management. The involvement of women was judged
to directly enhance the project’s
effectiveness.
Funding
Women
have successfully taken responsibility for
generating and administering funds for water and
sanitation improvements.
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In Banda
Golra, Pakistan, Nasim Bibi formed a
community-based women’s organization in 2002
to be eligible for credit. The women installed
seven village hand pumps, with a community
contribution of 20% and the NGO funding the
balance. Households contributed Rs. 1000 (US$
16) plus food and accommodation for the
labourers. The sanitation and health situation
has thus been improved, decision making power at
the household level has increased for most women
involved in the schemes, and their participation
in public activities is increasingly recognized.
Operation
and maintenance
Women
have taken a key role in the smooth running of water
supply and sanitation schemes, including an active
role in maintenance and ongoing repairs.
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As
part of the KWAHO (Kenya Water for Health
Organisation) supported WaterCan- Watsan project
in Kibera, Nairobi, community VIP latrines and
water points were provided. Two of the community
water points are managed by Daranjani Women’s
group of 20 women and fi ve men. They have been
trained in hygiene promotion and O&M of the
water storage tanks that are connected to the
main municipal supply.
Awareness
raising
A
key component of any project is to raise awareness
about safe hygienic practices. Women play a vital
role in awareness-raising about these issues.
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The Pro-Poor
Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Nepal
works in poor communities that can demonstrate
demand for improved water and sanitation. As
women have responsibility for water, they are
encouraged to take a lead role in community
decisions through the Water User Committee and
to use their knowledge to inform the design.
Hygiene and Sanitation Education supports female
facilitators to educate the community on
water-borne diseases and their prevention.
Better
Health for All
The incidence of
water-related diseases, including scabies,
diarrhoea, bilharzia and yaws, was seen to decrease
in WaterAid’s studies of water provision in
Ethiopia, Ghana, India and Tanzania. Together with
improvements in hygiene practice, this leads to
better general health for the whole community. For
example, households with a 10 per cent increase in
water use for cleaning purposes enjoy a 1.3%
decrease in diarrhoea. Having convenient amenities
and plenty of water on tap also enables women to
maintain more hygienic standards of childcare, with
access to a yard tap doubling the odds of a mother
washing her hands after cleaning a child’s anus,
and washing soiled linen immediately.
Women have the
best local knowledge about common habits and
problems and are central to educating their families
and the community about the benefits of using safe
water, adequate sanitation and practising good
hygiene.
Gladis Maribel
Dias is a beneficiary of the Clearwater Project in
Gualcinse, Honduras, providing piped water and the
“pila” (outdoor wash basin). She wanted to have
water in her home because it guarantees her family a
better life. Each household is provided with a
latrine and a bath, to strengthen aspects of
hygiene, personal cleanliness and basic sanitation.
Winnie Miyando
Cheolo and Febby Temb Mwachingwala are in a women’s
group in Mwachingwala village, Zambia, spearheading
sanitation and hygiene issues. They have been
involved in latrine building and now every household
has one. Other hygiene initiatives are dish racks,
rubbish pits and washing facilities, which have
reduced disease in the village. Children are also
taught good hygiene practice.
Group
initiatives with women are an effective way of
transmitting key hygiene messages, which bring about
radical changes in the health of the community.
The Village
Service Trust (VST) in India works with dalit women
to improve their social, economic and political
position, as well as the health of the poor.
Preventative health involves women with knowledge of
local disease and illness, carrying out house visits
and co-ordinating group discussions.
Nagarata Women’s
Group in Bauchi State, Nigeria, works closely with
women in the delivery of water, sanitation and
hygiene education for the communities. The hygiene
component of the intervention has meant that women
are now aware of basic hygiene practices, living
conditions have become healthier, children are
better nourished and mortality rates have fallen.
Women also make a living producing and selling soap.
The drinking
water, sanitation and community organization
programme in rural areas in Pasoc, Nicaragua, has
focused on health and violence issues from a gender
perspective. Part of this has been to increase the
proportion of women participating in water
committees to 45% and women committee coordinators
to 50%. Educational materials used were adapted to
include a focus on gender in school health education
programmes.
Women's
Privacy and Dignity
Women and girls
can be forced to wait until nightfall to defecate,
if there are no suitable sanitation facilities for
them to use in the daytime. Evidence from Nazlet
Fargallah in Upper Egypt confirms that this has
severe detrimental health impacts and makes women
vulnerable to violence. With access to appropriate
toilets, women and girls can use them at any time,
in private, without shame, embarrassment or fear.
Making defecation less of a problem is a liberating
and empowering development for women, whose lives
can be dominated by this basic need.
The symptoms of
menstruation, pregnancy and the postnatal period
become more problematic if women have nowhere to
deal with them adequately. The only way this can be
remedied is by designing facilities that meet women’s
physical and psychological demands and preferences.
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Utthan is an
Implementing Support Agency that aims to improve
water and sanitation services, through capacity
building and community mobilization, including
women focused hygiene programmes. Two women,
Rudiben and Baluben, are advocating for the
sanitation systems that women really want, i.e.
those offering privacy and safety. In Chhaya, an
integral element of this scheme was that
stand posts are located in places preferred by
women, in terms of their convenience and safety.
Ensuring women’s
privacy leads to their having greater confidence
about their bodies and about themselves as women.
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Women in
Songambele village, Tanzania, who were able to
bathe regularly during menstruation, improved
their personal hygiene and became more
confident. Prior to this, women who experienced
difficulties suffered humiliation by being taken
before the elders for advice on cleanliness.
It is also known
that laundering underclothes during menstruation
requires more water than normal and women from
NGO-supported projects in Nepal would put themselves
at risk by collecting extra water at night.
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The
Swayamsiddha project in India, which was
implemented in four villages in the Chitrakut
district in Uttar Pradesh state, carried out a
Community Needs Assessment involving men and
women separately. Open defecation was a common
practice prior to the project interventions,
which meant that women would wait until
nightfall. This presented severe difficulties
for them, and even more so when pregnant or
menstruating. As a result of the project, 779
women were involved in Self Help Groups
throughout the district, which provided a range
of services including savings and credit
facilities, health awareness, skill building and
health training programmes. The groups were able
to offer financial assistance for half the cost
of toilet building, and initiated community
drama activities to spread the message about
their benefits. The impact of building these
toilets was significant as women’s perception
of their own bodies changed as defecation,
menstruation and pregnancy could now be dealt
with discreetly. There was also a decrease in
diarrhoeal incidence, a reduction in the girls’
drop out rate from schools and an increase in
women’s technical knowledge.
Women's
Health and Well Being
Water,
sanitation and hygiene interventions are
advantageous for women too, with regards to their
own health and as they are the main carers of the
sick.
Pregnancy
and childbirth
MDG
five is to “Improve maternal health”. Access to
safe water plays a vital role in this, partly as
pregnant and nursing women no longer have to
struggle with heavy loads of water. Sickness through
water-borne disease and hepatitis is also avoided
through use of clean water and better hygiene.
Pregnant women are at risk of hookworm infestations,
which has been linked to low birth weight and
inhibited child growth.
-
A study of
Sri Lanka and Malaysia found that reductions in
maternal mortality were linked to improvements
in sanitation. As a result of government
programmes based on a synergy of health care,
education, water and sanitation, female life
expectancy has increased from 58 to 69 years and
maternal mortality has decreased by 70%.
Hygienic
childbirth techniques, used by skilled birth
attendants, can avert half of all infection-related
deaths, which are mainly caused by unhygienic
practices in labour and delivery.
Women’s
safety
Years
spent carrying heavy loads of water over long
distances can inevitably result in physical damage
to the back and neck.
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In the rural
areas of Tibet, the ‘back happy’ tapstand,
an adaptation with a waist high shelf and an
extra, higher tap added, allows women to fill
and carry 15-20 litre jars of water, without
bending.
Physical assault
and rape are risks faced when women collect water
from isolated places or use a secluded spot at night
to relieve themselves. Where water is in short
supply, women can be intimidated when they collect
it. Such harassment and abuse from local well owners
was avoided when there was a more plentiful supply
of water in Tanzania.
Accessing some
sources of water can present dangers.
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In Kenya,
Nakwetikya, a 60 year old Masai woman has
benefited from a new water source as she no
longer has to climb down very dangerous open
wells. Her sister was crushed to death when one
of these collapsed, leaving Nakwetikya to bring
up her sister’s four children. Before the
improvements, cholera was an annual occurrence
and the incidence of diarrhoea was high, with
frequent child deaths, of which three were
Nakwetikya’s children.
Disability
and women
Disabled
women and men benefit directly from innovations
relating to their use of water and sanitation as
they can wash and toilet themselves without help,
they are less restricted and so can contribute to
the family’s livelihood.
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Mrs Pethayee
lives in Tamil Nadu, India and struggles to walk
due to the effects of polio. The installation of
a western-style toilet rather than a squat-style
latrine is easier for her to use. Rather than
resorting to open defecation, the toilet has
improved her quality of life and made her home a
healthier place.
Interventions
which assist the disabled person in his/her use of
water and sanitation facilities also make the job of
the carer, who is often a woman, easier.
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Nine year
old Shathi, from a Dhaka slum, suffers from
cerebral palsy which prevents her from standing
or walking. She has benefited from the use of a
commode chair with an inset toilet pan on which
she can sit unaided and in privacy. Shathi’s
mother now spends less energy and effort
assisting her daughter, freeing up time to take
her daughter to the therapy centre and to carry
out other domestic tasks.
Girls'
School Attendance
Poor or
non-existent sanitation keeps girls, in particular,
out of the classroom. Of the 120 million children
not attending school, the majority are girls.
Consequently, two thirds of those who are illiterate
in the world are women.
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The Rural
Water Supply and Sanitation Project of the World
Bank aimed to improve girls’ school attendance
in Morocco, through reducing the traditional
burden on them to fetch water. School attendance
increased by 20% over four years.
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The
Ponnuansangampatti project in Tamil Nadu, India,
has included latrine building, installing new
handpumps and digging wells. S. Ganhamani took
out a loan for a tap connection to her house,
which provides the means to grow bananas, adding
five weeks wages to her annual income. This
means she can now send her daughter to
school.
Pubescent and
menstruating female pupils can be deterred from
attending school if there are no private sanitation
facilities and a clean water supply. Where these are
provided, school enrolment rates increase and drop
out rates decrease.
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An
assessment in 20 schools in rural Tajikistan
revealed that all girls chose not to attend when
they had their periods, as there were no
facilities available.
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In 1999, a
borehole, handpump and separate pit latrines
were constructed in the Nigerian village of
Bashibo. A school Health Club was also
established, promoting hygienic behaviour. By
2001, hand washing had increased by 95%, with
90% bathing and brushing teeth regularly. Girls’
school attendance has increased, as has the
general health and nutritional status of the
community.
Finally, the
recruitment and retention of female teachers is also
affected by lack of services. In addition, female
teachers have the tasks of water collection and
caring for the sick. WaterAid reports that since
their clean water programmes in India, Tanzania and
Ghana, more teachers are accepting posts in areas
which were formerly difficult to recruit for.
Women's
Income Generation
Making
an income from water
Some
women have taken matters into their own hands, due
to the high prices they often pay for water and have
set up their own licensed water vending points. This
has happened in low-income neighbourhoods in
Honduras, Burkina Faso and Kenya. The results have
been a fairer, fixed price for water, employment for
women servicing these water points, with
profits contributing to funding local community
projects. There are other examples of women in
Mexico, Kenya and Brazil taking steps to organize
their own water supply or connection to the
municipal network. However, detailed financial
benefits have not been quantified.
Sometimes women
are able to earn a living by supporting the improved
services in some way.
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Women’s
groups work with a UNICEF programme in
Nyakitunda, Uganda, which promotes rainwater
harvesting and trains women in all associated
technical, marketing and management aspects.
With UNICEF’s help and seed funding for
premises and casting yards, the women make and
sell water jars and
slabs.
A good water
source can provide additional income-generating
opportunities in activities which require plentiful,
clean water such as brewing, running teashops and
laundering clothes. Such trades can become a
reliable and sustainable source of income for women.
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In Ghana,
women potters had both time and resources to be
able to increase their production and trade due
to improved water services. Water was also
available for cola nut and palm oil processing
and for distilling Akpeteshie, a local alcoholic
drink.
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In
Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank and Grameen Krishi
Foundation deep tube well programme was aimed at
linking agricultural efficiency with women’s
empowerment. Improved irrigation schemes led to
increases in women’s income, giving them more
confidence and reducing their dependence on men,
in spite of some loss of status in contravening
purdah norms.
Having
more time to earn an income
Serious
time savings have a significant effect on the
quality of women’s lives.
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In
Ethiopia, community-managed integrated water,
sanitation and hygiene projects increased the
amount of water available for domestic uses from
less than 10 litres a day per person to 18-22
litres. The length of time women spend providing
water for the family has reduced from around six
to eight hours down to five to 20 minutes. The
women reported that their domestic chores were
easier to carry out as the amount of water used
was not so severely restricted.
Women show great
resourcefulness and energy in finding alternative
uses for their time. The impacts of these activities
range from increased income, greater equality in
marriage and the ability to save money.
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In India,
Gujarati women’s economic productivity was
increased by time saved due to a new water
supply system. An additional programme of
support for the women to develop handicrafts
addressed the usual constraints to taking up new
enterprises, which are the lack of funds and
access to credit.
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Tanzanian
women devoted more time to economic activities
such as working in shops and tea-rooms, and
selling their produce (ground nuts, potatoes,
cassava and fruit).
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Zeini Batti,
an Ethiopian widow, felt huge benefits when a
water point was installed, allowing her to spend
time basket weaving and making utensils, and in
that way, amassing some savings.
Women's
Status
Having a role in
the planning, design and implementation of water,
sanitation and hygiene interventions is often an
empowering experience for women. The improvement in
status opens up opportunities for income generation
and other public and influential roles.
Women
as positive role models
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Shanti
Bhut is from Baitandi, Nepal. She became vice
chair of a Water and Sanitation User Committee
and trained as a paid maintenance caretaker. She
has since progressed to vice president of a
gendersensitive savings and credit steering
committee. Her skills and ability to earn an
independent income mean that she is a source of
pride to her in-laws and is held up as a
positive role model within the community.
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Programmes
aimed at involving women by the Waters of
Nouadhibou Project in Mauritania offer training
on water quality, management and water use in
agriculture, providing support for trickle and
sprinkler irrigation systems. Automatic drinking
fountains have been installed in schools, with
senior female students as role models
responsible for these.
Women
as skilled workers
Women can be
involved directly in the technical operations and
management of services. Again, challenging
gender-specific roles helps to change traditional
perceptions about women’s status, skills and
capabilities.
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In El
Salvador, the Agua Project promotes leadership
in women and trains them as Community Producers,
Promoters and Managers. They have acquired
knowledge and skills to perform tasks previously
considered to be suitable only for men.
There are many
instances of women working successfully in technical
jobs.
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Sirumbayi is
a female handpump caretaker in the
Krishnarayapuram Panchayat Union in
Tiruchirappali district, India. As she is from a
lower social caste, previously forbidden to
touch water sources, this has increased her
status in the community.
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Janaki Karki
is a skilled mason in Nepal in spite of male
opposition. Abandoned by her husband, her work
has given her more self confidence, and she is
able to provide for her children alone.
Key
Messages
Involving women
in water supply, sanitation and hygiene
interventions has proven beneficial through:
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an increase
in the success rate of these interventions, due
to the fact that women have a good knowledge of
local water and sanitation practices, which,
when incorporated into improvement programmes
results in better health and quality of life for
the community;
-
improved
design, greater transparency and accountability
of projects;
-
more
effective hygiene promotion, when women use
established group activities to reach other
women;
-
promoting
change in traditional gender roles, thereby
contributing to the empowerment of women in the
communities, and their more active participation
in decision making; and
-
promoting
opportunities for women to make a valuable
contribution to their families’ incomes and
livelihoods or to gain financial independence,
through freedom from the constraints caused by a
lack of safe water and adequate sanitation and
good hygiene practice.
Taking women’s
needs and preferences into account in water supply,
sanitation and hygiene promotion has resulted in:
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an increase
in attendance and a decrease in drop out rates
at school of young women, due to the provision
of separate and adequate sanitation;
-
an increase
in the level of education and literacy rates of
girls since easier access to water supply and
less time spent caring for sick family members
allow them to spend more time at school;
-
reductions
in child mortality and maternal morbidity and
mortality as a result of appropriate access to
water supply and sanitation facilities and
improved hygiene during childbirth;
-
improved
health for women and girls who no longer have to
delay defecation and urination;
-
less
physical injury from constant lifting and
carrying heavy loads of water; and
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less
harassment and risk of sexual assault and
increased safety as women and girls do not have
to go to remote and dangerous places to defecate
or to fetch water.
Key
References
Blagborough, V.
(Ed.), (2001) Looking Back: The long-term impacts
of water and sanitation projects. WaterAid.
WSSCC (2004) Resource
Pack on the Water and Sanitation Millennium
Development Goals.
GWA (2003) Advocacy
Manual for Gender and Water Ambassadors, GWA,
The Netherlands.
This
Briefing Note is based on the full report by WSSCC/WEDC
'For Her it's the Big Issue' available at http://www.wsscc.org/pdf/publications/FOR_HER_ITs_THE_BIG_ISSUE_Evidence
_Report-en.pdf
For
further information contact:
WELL Water,
Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) Loughborough
University Leicestershire
LE11 3TU UK Email:
well@lboro.ac.uk Phone:
+44 (0)1509 228304 Fax:
+44 (0)1509 223970
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