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Facts and Figures: Women and Water
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Water at the core of women’s traditional tasks
 In many societies, water is at the core of women’s traditional responsibilities: collecting and storing water, caring for children, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining sanitation. These tasks often represent a whole day of work; in some regions, women spend up to five hours a day collecting fuel wood and water and up to four hours preparing food. In Africa, 90% of the work of gathering water and wood, for the household and for food preparation, is done by women. Providing access to clean water close to the home can dramatically reduce women’s workloads, and free up time for other economic activities. For their daughters, this time can be used to attend school.
Better sanitary conditions are of greatest importance for women, providing ‘greater privacy, convenience, safety and dignity and safe hygiene practices in the family’, according to the Gender and Water Alliance.
Women play a key role in educating children to water. Their interest in water awareness is major, since it is they who look after the household, and whose children diseases, often fall sick due to contaminated water or lack of hygiene: each year, nearly two million children die from diarrhoeal diseases. Yet educating children always to wash their hands after using the toilet and before preparing food is a very simple and effective means of preventing such illnesses.
The role of women in agriculture and food security
 Women are the world’s principal food producers and providers and are assuming an increasing role in agriculture, partly because of the rural-to-urban migration of men. But they often remain underestimated in development strategies. The division of agricultural labour between women and men tends to confine women’s role in the household production: unpaid, and unrecorded in the statistics, there is little recognition of women’s labour in agriculture.
Yet women have proved to be good farmers, often obtaining better results thanks to their conscientious labour inputs and attention to detailed management. But all too often, they are not given the means to produce as much as men – many studies agree to say that national economies could largely improve if policies enabled women to contribute in a larger proportion to its agricultural production.
Milestones: commitments made by the international community
Since the early 1980s more and more attention has been devoted to the relationship between women and the environment, and in particular in relation to water, during international conferences.
Agenda 21, the main outcome of the Rio Earth Summit held in 1992, includes a chapter on Global Action for Women towards Sustainable and Equitable Development.
The same year, the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Developmentincludes women in one of its four principles: "Women play a central part in the provision, management and safeguarding of water".
The Programme of Action from the UN International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), has a chapter dedicated to Gender equality, equity and empowerment of women
In 1995, during the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, China), governments committed themselves in the Beijing Declaration to: "promote knowledge of and sponsor research on the role of women, particularly rural and indigenous women, in irrigation, watershed management, sanitation, focusing particularly on indigenous women's knowledge and experience."
During the International Conference on Freshwater held in Bonn, Germany, in December 2001, gender was given a prominent place in the Ministerial Declaration: "Both men and women should be involved and have an equal voice in managing the sustainable use of water resources and sharing of benefits. The role of women in water-related areas needs to be strengthened"
More recently, the Johannesburg Summit (28 August-04 September 2002) has issued several main commitments related to women in its Political Declaration . Among them to:
  "Promote women’s equal access to and full participation, on the basis of equality with men, in decision-making at all levels, mainstreaming gender perspectives in all policies and strategies…’
‘Improve access to land and property, to adequate shelter and to basic services for the urban and rural poor, with special attention to female heads of households’
‘Facilitate access to public information and participation, including by women, at all levels in support of policy and decision-making related to water resources management and project implementation.’
Involving women in water development can go a long way: a few examples from around the world
Burkina Faso:
A recent study in Dakiri, Burkina Faso shows that allocating smaller plots to men and women separately instead of allocating larger plots to household heads has produced both higher yields and social benefits. [Read more]
Java, Indonesia:
In the Sewukan community of Magelan District, the participation of women in the evaluation of eleven water systems community has affected gender relations in several ways. [Read more]
Tanzania:
On the Tanga Coast of Tanzania, empowering women has also improved the coastal environment. [Read more]
For more information, publications and links about women and water visit our library.
Information based on:
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Gender and Food Security
Gender and Water Alliance (GWA) website
UN World Water Development Report (WWDR)
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 Task Force on Gender and Water A new inter-agency Task Force on Gender and Water was inaugurated in September 2003. It brings together water and gender specialists from 13 UN agencies to work towards the implementation of gender-sensitive water and sanitation activities. |
| Women and Food Security Rural women are responsible for half of the world’s food production, and produce between 60 and 80% of the food in most developing countries. |
| Women and Food Security Women are the main producers of the world’s staple crops (rice, wheat, maize) which provide up to 90% or the rural poor’s food intake. |
| Women and Food Security In South-East Asia, women provide up to 90% of the labour for rice cultivation. |
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How to get involved?
