Water: a shared responsibility; 2006 - UN-Water

V A L U I N G A N D C H A R G I N G F O R W A T E R . 403
BOX 12.2: VALUING WATER, VALUING WOMEN
In most, if not all, developing countries,
collecting water for the family is women’s
work. While water for drinking and cooking
must be carried home, dishes, clothes and often
children may be carried to the water source for
washing. Women and girls are often seen
queuing with their water pots at all-tooscarce
taps, then walking long distances home
balancing them on their heads or hips. If the
water is contaminated and a family member
falls ill, it is often the woman who must care
for them. Children in particular are vulnerable.
In parts of the world where AIDS is rampant,
individuals with weakened immune systems also
easily fall prey to pathogens in the water supply.
The low status of women in many societies
means that their contribution – in terms of the
time and energy spent, for example, in fetching
water – is considered to be of little value.
In economic terms, the opportunity cost 2 of
their labour is perceived as near zero. Where
women have been given access to education
and to money-making work, such as handicrafts
production, and are permitted to sell their
products and to earn income for the family,
their social as well as financial position
improved dramatically.
Attitudes toward water-collecting can also shift.
The time women spend collecting water,
especially when simple and readily available
technological alternatives exist, looks very
different and far more costly to the family and
society as a whole, when women have incomeearning
opportunities. Thus, investments made to
improve access to safe drinking water are both a
reflection of the value placed on water for human
well-being and the value accorded women.
Providing regular and dependable access to
safe drinking water is one way of improving the
position of women as well as society as a whole.
Source: UNICEF/WHO, 2004.
human health is, of course, critical. Recently we have
seen the growth in bottled water consumption, which
although a necessity in some cases, is also a growing
trend in places where safe and inexpensive water is
readily available on tap (see Box 12.1).
As a physical, emotional and cultural life-giving element,
water must be considered as more than just an economic
resource. Sharing water is an ethical imperative as well
as an expression of human identity and solidarity (see
Chapter 11). Accordingly, the high value placed on water
can be found in the cosmologies and religions and the
tangible and intangible heritage of the world’s various
cultures. The unique place water holds in human life has
ensured it an elevated social and cultural position, as
witnessed by the key role water plays in the rituals of all
major faiths. The proposition that water is a human right
alongside the increasing competition between water
users has resulted in water becoming a political issue in
many regions (see Chapter 2). The amount of time spent
in collecting water – a task mainly performed by women
and children – is increasing in many areas. Water supply
must, therefore, also be viewed as a social issue and,
more specifically, a gender issue (see Box 12.2).
Restored interest in ethnic and cultural heritage in many
societies around the world has lead to a revival of
numerous traditional rituals, festivals and social customs,
many of which feature water as a key element. Thus, the
tradition of social bathing endures, for example, in Turkey
and Japan. Water sports too play an important role;
currently nearly one-third of Olympic sports use water,
snow or ice. Many archaeological sites – the Roman
aqueducts, the Angkor ruins, the Ifugao and Inca
terraces, among others – are monuments to ancient
societies’ ingenuity in water engineering. Listing these
historic sites on the roster of World Heritage protected
cultural properties is in effect formal recognition of the
high value that the international community accords
these locations (see Map 12.1).
Water splashing at a
festival in the Dai ethnic
Minority Village, China
2. Opportunity cost is defined as
the maximum worth of a good
or input among possible
alternative uses (OMB, 1992).