Can women managers transform the state of water governance? Can women's leadership positively impact equity in access to and supply of water? Can gender appreciation bring about sustainability in community-based water management systems? These oft-repeated questions have engaged social scientists for long.

It has long been understood that most community-based water management systems undermine the role of women; drawing upon their labour and assuming that this will in itself advance the objectives of the project and benefit women. But this is a hollow assumption; there is plenty of evidence to show that water has been managed without due regard to the concerns and priorities of women, and often they have been the first victims in the event of failure in managing water sources and supplies. The error of the assumption is amply captured in the new book, Flowing Upstream. With the help of community-based water management case studies from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the editor Sara Ahmad reiterates that mere labour participation by women is not enough; instead what is needed is the mainstreaming of gender in the management of water.

The problems begin with the perception that women's incentive for water conservation is related only to their dependence on the resource - if it is not handy, then must fetch it from elsewhere. This is certainly true, but also simplistic. Male migration is common in water-stressed regions, and therefore it is inevitable that women's labour is needed to fetch water, as well as in the construction of water harvesting structures. But their participation has to be seen more broadly, within a structure that does not allow them the same access to other economic opportunities as it does to men. When we do that, we see that disregard for women's concerns in water management has a serious impact on the contribution they make to household livelihoods as well.

To drive home the point, the researchers have quantified such losses. A study in Banaskantha district of Gujarat revealed that a breakdown in water supply had caused enterprise members to lose Rs.50 per person per month in earnings. The same study had concluded that improvement in water supply had added anywhere between Rs.750 to Rs.5520, depending on the enterprise, to women's annual incomes on account of significant reduction in time spent in collecting water.

The problems begin with the perception that women's incentive for water conservation is related only to their dependence on the resource.


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