The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security - Unu-inweh ...

Although cultural constraints still continue to impinge upon entry of women in water management courses, and the
discrimination of women water professionals at entry points in water agencies and their upward mobility within the sector
continue, it is seen in some cases (such as in the Department of Irrigation Sri Lanka) that women’s entry and contribution
into the formal water management sector is increasing (Kamaladasa, 2012).
However, these positive changes cannot happen on their own; they need to be proactively facilitated and need highlevel
political, administrative and legal mechanisms to create an enabling environment in order to benefit both women
professionals and women in grassroots communities. More than any other factor, adequate resource allocation is necessary
(UNESCO, 2012a).
At the Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries held in Istanbul in 2011, UN Women’s Executive Director
Michelle Bachelet questioned the continued low investment in rural women while reiterating that “investments in rural
women’s access to productive resources and financial services can have critical multiplier effects on rural development”
(UN Women, 2012). The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report 2010-2011 states that investing in women in agriculture
could increase yields and decrease global hunger by 12-17%, or by between 100 and 150 million people (FAO, 2011). At the
launch of the Fourth World Water Development Report in March 2012, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova reiterated
the need for a new leadership in water which can “acknowledge, integrate and strengthen the role of women” (UNESCO,
2012b). It is time these global statements are operationalised at the local and national levels by all concerned stakeholders.
Conclusions
Twenty years after the Dublin Principles were first enunciated at the Rio Earth Summit and upheld the critical role of
women in the international water sector, this area is yet to be fully recognised, accepted and operationalized, especially
in the irrigated agricultural sector of many Asian countries, including Sri Lanka.
Investment in women’s capacity development for achieving water security needs to focus on empowering women,
especially those from disadvantaged communities. To ensure that women’s leadership and expertise feed into thematic
areas of work, such as guidelines and initiatives related to land and water allocation, investment in financial and human
resources, and food processing and food security, calls for a higher degree of research into women’s roles and activities
than is available at present. The question of research into women and water, however, is a vicious circle: because there
are no (or minimal) funds allocated to research in this area, there are no data; and because there are no data available,
there is little evidence to substantiate the need to strengthen the role of women in management and decision-making
in the water sector. An essential facilitating factor, the lack of gendered databases, has to be speedily addressed through
appropriate resource allocation.
In order to support women’s participation for generating positive impacts on community water security, a gendered
allocation of necessary resources from budget lines of water agencies is essential. The adoption and implementation of
policies that protect women’s rights to land and other productive resources, which ensure access to markets, finances,
information and capacity development, are also critical supporting factors.
There is also an urgent need for states and water agencies to remain conversant with a fast changing reality on the ground
by regularly engaging with women civil society leaders, including networking with community-based organizations of
women in rural areas. State agencies and civil society organizations working in rural settings, especially in the Asian
region, need to hire more women experts in all areas of work to create more gender-equitable institutions that focus on
women’s empowerment.
As stated at the recently concluded World Water Forum 6 in Marseilles: “After all the rhetoric, the time for solutions must really
come now. Beyond speeches and statements, our planet needs concrete and credible acts” (World Water Council, 2012). This
urgency is most keenly felt in the women and water sector. Women are the most affected by threats to water security, and
this will be especially true as water security becomes increasingly contested due to the impacts of climate change. Women
are as yet an under-utilized invisible force, and given an enabling environment coupled with a greater democratization of the
water sector, have the potential to become effective agents of change, a force without whom change is not possible. If there
is to be a global move towards a more inclusive, dynamic development supporting water security for all, then the focus of
global water initiatives has to be on mobilizing the hitherto sidelined resource, the Major Group of Women.
106 The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue