“Water is a vital not only for life: water feeds our nations, stimulates our industry, washes our problems, quenches our thirst and brings beauty and pleasure to our lives. Unfortunately water flows through power. That is why those lacking power are the most vulnerable; lacking water not only for drinking but also for productive purposes. A gender sensitive approach is needed to correct at least one element of this uneven flow.”

Barbara Schreiner, Water, gender and poverty, International Conference on Fresh Water, Bonn 2000

The United Nations International Water Decade 2005-2015 “Water for life”, to be launched on March 22 2005 is strongly linked to achieving the Millennium goals. This should stimulate us, in Latin America, to work harder to achieve equity in access to water resources.

Our region shows a high rate of water and sanitation coverage close to the millennium goals. However, these figures usually reflect what is happening in big cities.  The situation changes dramatically if we consider rural areas, shanty towns on the edge of cities, displaced people, indigenous groups or communities of African origin. These poorest groups have less access to water and sanitation and the least opportunity to participate in policy making. Poverty limits social participation, depriving people of their civic rights.

The 1997 Human Development report showed that countries with the lowest gender development (Sierra Leone, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali) also showed the highest poverty rates, with least access to water and health and low levels of literacy. When these figures are broken down, it becomes clear that women are treated unequally and that their empowerment is an essential pre-condition for reducing poverty.

Figures registered by CEPAL (2001) showed that countries with the highest poverty rates (Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay) also have the highest rates of social, gender and ethnic inequality. There is a tendency in Latin America to think that we are a society with equality between men and women, and that gender issues are not the priorities for water and sanitation.  However, closer analysis within a region, programme or organisation, forces us to a different conclusion.

For example, in “Valle del Cauca “, in Colombia, only 14 of the 62 community leaders for 10 rural water supply systems are women, and only two women hold positions of president or vice president. Similar figures would be found in a water company supplying a big city.

Some trends in water management and policy also impact adversely on women. In “Vizcaino” valley, Baja California, Mexico, small landowners are selling or renting their water rights to large agricultural companies. Out of 28 wells, only 4 are still owned by small landowners.  Lacking water to irrigate their plots, the men leave home to look for work, leaving the women and children behind.

Water provision during the last 10 years in Latin America has been characterised by privatisation schemes. The Buenos Aires concession, for example, functions in such a way that: “inclusion of new users is unfortunately not enough to avoid exclusion of a significant number of families on low incomes”. [1] Many ‘low income’ families are headed by women.

The Water for Life decade should revise some of this neo liberal dogma in relation to water services. And gender equity in access to water resources should include men, rather than leaving these concerns to women.

Contact: Mariela García, sociologist, Cinara, Universidad del Valle.

[1] Cepal (2004). Bulletin of the Network for Cooperation in Integrated Water Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. No. 20, June 2004

Tags: gender, participatory management, policies & legislation, urban wash, water and livelihoods, water collection