Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

Women and Water Policy 259
greater focus on introducing measures that have a bearing on this disadvantage.
The alternative would therefore have to base itself on a distinction
between basic service for livelihood needs, and extra or economic
service.
The concept of the minimum assurance of water for livelihood needs
is closely tied to the concept of a basic water service that should be provided
to everyone at an affordable cost and as a matter of right. Any extra
service above such basic service would conceptually be extra service and
should be tied much more closely to achieving economic efficiency.
(SOPPECOM 2002)
In the case of water entitlements for single or deserted women, or
women household heads, it might in the initial stages be necessary for an
enabling policy support to create a ‘level playing field’. This could come
in the form of initial credit and skills support with a specific policy of
withdrawal in place. Taking water to the poor people living in remote
areas implies a heavy cost of lifting the water, or taking it across longer
distances. Do the poor, adivasi women and men pay for this recurring
cost of energy while those in the more favourable locations get away with
it? Here it is important to stress that pricing for basic services has to be
affordable to all, regardless of whether they live at high altitudes or in
the plains.
The other contentious issue is the recovery of costs incurred on resource
development. Part of this recovery should come from the pricing
of economic services. Another suggested method of easing the cost recovery
burden of basic services is that of recovery in kind. A portion of the
cost recovery can be tied to recovery in kind. This could ease the pressure
on women and those who would use their water right essentially for
meeting livelihood needs (SOPPECOM 2002). The main issue here is
adjusting recovery through differential pricing for basic and economic
services. The key principle to be followed is that, whereas the operation
and management charges are shared equally by all, the capital costs are to
be recovered through differential pricing. Concessions need to be given
in the form of provisions for recovery in kind for various disadvantaged
groups.
In conclusion, one can say that the task of feminists in this sector has
been to struggle at different ends. One of these has been to systematically