DIPLOMARBEIT - ÖH Uni Wien - Universität Wien

their domestic responsibilities, their restriction to low paid and insecure seasonal work, theirlack of land and animal rights combined with `macho` attitudes upheld through education,religion and the mass media” (Coles/Wallace 2005: 81f.). Women are of course welcome tocontribute their workforce, but they are not given a voice in the community or political partywhich enforces their marginalization (Coles/Wallace 2005: 82). Therefore, extendingwomen`s capacity to participate in decision-making processes is a key to their empowerment.Only then they also benefit from development and can improve their living conditions (Garba1999: 331). In addition to that projects are also going to fail when the focus is on so-calledwomen`s concerns and not on changing gender inequalities and structures in general (Longwein Coles/Wallace 2005: 153f.).So it was assumed that women just had to be more included in the development process inorder to benefit from it to the same extent as men do. They needed to be given moreresources, land, employment and income to improve their living conditions(Neuhold/Thallmayer 2012: 13). This sounds quite simple but the crucial factor here is theright implementation since participation of women can easily lead to an increasing burden ofwork for them with no benefits at all:Insufficient and inadequate `participation` in `development` was not the cause for women`sincreasing under-development; it was rather, their enforced but asymmetric participation in it,by which they bore the costs but were excluded from the benefits, that was responsible (Shiva1988: 2).As mentioned above a very important task of women in developing countries is the one offetching water as well as its proper usage and distribution. Therefore the third section of thischapter deals with the women`s particular role in water mangement.3.3. Roles of Women in the Water and Sanitation SectorAs mentioned above water is a precious resource and access to it is a human right. The WorldWater Vision demands access to safe and sufficient water and sanitation facilities foreverybody until 2015 (World Water Council 2000 in Coles/Wallace 2005: 4). TheUNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) defines appropriate access to water as 20litres per person per day for domestic use, like drinking, cooking, washing utensils andpersonal hygiene. It has to be clean water, from a so-called improved source, and no furtherthan one kilometre away from the people`s home. These improved sources can be “household37