Putting Women at the centre of Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Part II.

Putting women at the centre of water, sanitation and hygiene into perspective, this blogpost seeks to provide examples where organisations have promoted a community approach to solving sanitation issues with an emphasis on the role of women in managing water, sanitation and hygiene practices for their local communities. As discussed in my previous blog, women are the active agents in water management, which is why its important to educate themselves around hygiene and sanitation practices, whilst recognising the role of women and their contribution to their country’s progress with their entrepreneurial spirit and belief in self-determination that have become key to the socio-economic and political advancement of people.

Management of Water and Sanitation:

HORCO is an Ethiopian NGO and stands for Hope for Rural Children and Orphans. One of their projects is running in Holeta Town, south of Addis Ababa. The population of Holeta have two sources for water, both of which are dirty and contaminated. In Holeta, like majority of other African rural villages women are obliged to fetch water and for that they need to pass through the forest which can expose them to the risk of rape and abduction. HORCO has involved women in the building of water points, trenches for water pipes and pit latrine, keeping sanitation facilities close to home has reduced the number of women travelling far for sanitation facilities. They have also educated women on health and hygiene practices, and in 2014- 15 HORCO promoted gender equality and empowered women through establishing a minimum of 3 out of 6 female representation on the water, sanitation committees and provided training that specifically targets gender inequalities in the communities. HORCO have successfully empowered women through involving them in decision making in local water, sanitation committees, providing training in these operations whilst educating them in healthcare and environmental sustainability practices.  

Elsewhere, in Kraaipan, South Africa Jacobeth Mabeo has set up a sanitation committee which consists of women implementing a sanitation project through constructing and planning toilets, providing health and hygiene awareness for the community. Similarly, Winne Miyando and Febby Temb in Mwachingwala, Zambia are members of women’s water committee who have raised awareness and promoted sanitation and hygiene initiatives since 1998 (Dankelman, 2009). Since then, they have actively built latrines in every household in the village making sanitary facilities accessible to all and promoted hygiene initiatives through the use of dish racks, rubbish bins and washing facilities in every household to further increase hygiene awareness and has overall led to the reduction in the incidence of diseases. Women are key players to the social and economic advancement of their community, by involving women in water and sanitation committee they not only help raise awareness and reduce the incidence of disease but also are emancipating themselves through water management, actively growing their skill sets, knowledge and improving their futures and the futures of their communities. 

The benefits of putting women at the centre of water, sanitation and hygiene. 

• Women suffer less harassment by having latrines closer to home, they no longer need to travel an hold urination and defecation
• Hygiene and sanitation interventions have widespread health improvements for the whole community, by lowering the incidence of water-borne and communicable diseases. This is advantageous for women, not only with regards to their own health, but as they are the main carers for the sick
• Empowering women through the participation of women in water committee allows women to use their knowledge on water resource management, from a quality, reliability, source and location perspective to help themselves and their communities.

It is important therefore, that women are an integral part of the process when decisions regarding planning, delivery and monitoring water services are made. There can be no water security without involving women, they need to be placed at the heart of solutions. Women’s participation in water management has been limited, where majority of water and sanitation management committee in local areas have been dominated by men. It has been studied that water and sanitation committees that are run by women have been considerably more successful than those which are not (Mommen et al, 2017). Studies elsewhere has also shown that failure to involve women in the design and management of water results in disuse and a breakdown of the system (Kelly, 2009). Government and leaders of organisations should actively promote women in social and economic development by reinforcing their capacity in the domains of education and training in which would aid women to take higher positions in the local or national organisations.

References:

Dankelman, I. (2009). ‘’Making Sustainable Sanitation work for women and men.’’ Integrating a Gender Perspective into Sanitation Initiatives.

Mommen et al. (2017). ‘’Does women’s participation in water committees affect management and      water system performance in rural Vanatu?’’ Waterlines, pp. 216-232.

Horco. (2014). ‘’Project Proposal for Oromiya Region.’’ Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Submitted to Hope for Rural Children and Orphans, http://www.horco.ca/.

Morgan, D and Ojo, E. ‘’Women in Africa’s development: Pushing for progress through entrepreneurship education complimented by on-going coaching sessions.’’ A case Study Paper. The Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning. University of London, pp.

Kelly, A. (2009). ‘’Money ‘wasted’ on water projects in Africa.’’ (WWW) (Accessed: https://www.theguardian.com/society/katineblog/2009/mar/26/water-projects-wasted-money; 2 December 2018).

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