Water Policy 5 Number 3 289-304 (2003)

Women and water: a policy assessment

Nandita Singh, Prosun Bhattacharya, Gunnar Jacks and Jan-Erik Gustafsson

Corresponding author. Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden (Tel: +46 8 790 9055; fax: +46 8 411 0775; e-mail: nandita@kth.se)

Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Women and water are linked together in more than one way. They may be seen as “domestic water managers” with specific water-related needs and interests. They may also be seen as having the potential for more active involvement in the sector at the levels of policy making, planning and implementation. Drawing upon the background of such needs, interests and potentials of women in relation to water, different agencies at national and international levels have framed different kinds of policies. What is the nature of such policies? What do they aim at? How effective have these been in addressing the water-related needs of women as “beneficiaries”? How effective has been the involvement of women as “actors” in delivering the goods? This paper attempts to evaluate the existing policies using a microperspective analysis, and proposes “facilitation of role performance” as a suitable policy alternative.

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