This is part two of the discussion on how water management initiatives can help gender equity in rural Indian villages.
NESWAD, GUJARAT – Like everyone else in the village, women define water scarcity as the outcome of three interconnected factors: increase in village population, extensive irrigation, and lack of rainfall. An interview that Sara Ahmed of the Center for Environmental Education had with a grassroots woman leader in the village of Newsad reveals the vast knowledge and adaptations women have to make when it comes to water (or lack of it).:
If the rain comes then the level of water in the well increases, so we can easily get water. Due to water scarcity the water table has gone down five feet this year. About 20 years ago, during the rainy season, water used to fill the wells up and we were able to take water just with our hands. Now we need to dig somewhere between 85 to 90 feet and sometimes we encounter salt water because we are digging so deep. The people nor our animals can drink the water when it is so salty.
In addition to salt water encroachment, women and other villagers blame factories which have come up near the Newsad village for the deteriorating groundwater quality. There is a double edged sword here. While new factories provide employment for villagers, drinking water is severely affected. Villagers must make a choice in this type of tradeoff. If one well which feeds the entire village either goes dry or is contaminated, women have to travel miles to gather water from other wells. This in turn could cause conflict because those wells are typically part of another village. As this occurs, a terrible cycle of physical, social, and mental anguish continues.
Through this ordeal, it is the women who have most of the knowledge about these water-related issues. Many non-governmental organizations see this as an opportunity to help empower women through water management initiatives in villages.
One example of an initiative was undertaken by UTTHAN, a NGO focusing on women’s empowerment. UTTHAN decided to promote roof water collection tanks in these other villages. They have sought to ensure that the labor contribution for installation comes from the women in the household and that these assets are registered inwomen’s names and promotes women’s participation.
This not only provides savings and credit services, but also women’s welfare and village development.
