At the time of publication for this piece, a week has passed since World Water Day. After almost 6 months working in the development sector here in India and over 6 years working alongside and studying environmental issues critically, I took some time to sit with this. Environmental topics and water issues are intersectional, and through the duration of my Fellowship, I’ve reflected on how communities are marginalized per gender, class, and other social axes in development. This raises questions about how we, as development professionals, can be cognizant of these gaps in order to better address them and empower the communities we serve.
There is no World Water Day without centering women. The connection between women and water is spiritual, corporeal, and political– it transcends issues of governance and infrastructure design. Being traditional caretakers of the home, women are burdened with responsibilities such as cooking, laundry, water fetching, and maintaining children’s hygiene. They also bear the repercussions of water inaccess.
Water issues thereby are women’s issues, as they impact women more severely. As anchors of community, women are uniquely positioned to bring progress because of their firsthand experience challenging systems of power as a marginalized group. Spending time speaking with women farmers (mahila kisaan) at my field site with VIKSAT in Kheroj, Gujarat has solidified these thoughts. I’ve begun to understand their relationship with the land and its water as a structural component that brings mahila kisaan together. After all, agriculture is water– virtual water– it siphons the movement of water, it takes and gives water.
Varshaben from Patadiya exemplifies the role of mahila kisaan in India’s rural water sector. We met during my most recent field visit in mid-February. Varshaben has a radiant smile, welcoming eyes, and an eager spirit. The site visit was to Patadiya Watershed, a NABARD-funded project that VIKSAT began in 2020; this development initiative mitigates soil degradation using treated contour trenches that functionally reduce runoff and by extension, soil and water erosion. The watershed is managed locally by the Village Watershed Committee, and Varshaben is one of four women on the Committee.
Outside farming and monitoring the quality and effectiveness of the watershed, Varshaben has brought together women of the local Self-Help Group (SHG) to start a shoemaking business. SHGs are small, voluntary associations of people (all women, in this context) that collectivize to pool resources and address common issues. They’ve designed and sold several pairs locally in village markets, ranging from a casual flip-flop to elegant slippers for special events. Developing these artisanal skills has created pathways for income generation, boosting women’s agency and economic mobility. And it all started with a community cultivated by bringing women together through water!
For this world water day, I wanted to zoom out from Patadiya’s microcosm of water management and contextualize the role South Asian women play in the issue of water. I felt there was no better group to talk to than the South Asia Young Women in Water (SAYWiW) collective. Meghna Chakraborty, founder of SAYWiW, started the organization with 4 other South Asian women after years of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) experience in India and abroad, as well as communications support at UNICEF.
Empathy, Chakraborty said, has fueled her long-term duration in the water sector. Seeing water disparities (and the lack thereof) at varying scales across the world, Chakraborty realized that not worrying about water is freedom in itself.
SAYWiW’s aim is to facilitate regional collaboration in the South Asian water sector by linking and uplifting women water professionals. SAYWiW’s team and its impact is growing by the day. To learn more about their work, Chakraborty connected me with Sayeda Rahimi, SAYWiW’s country representative for Afghanistan. Rahimi and I spoke at length about her experience with advocacy, the challenges specific to the region, and their hope for the future of the water sector.
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Q) What inspired you to join SAYWiW? What does their work look like in the sector?
Rahimi: After returning to Afghanistan when I completed my degree in International Relations at Quaid-i-Azam University in Pakistan, I was astounded by the water struggles my community faced. In my home itself, every 3 hours we are allotted 3 minutes of water. Wells are drying up, and it is women like my mother that have to endure the emotional labor of asking for water from neighbors and nearby mosques. SAYWiW provided me an opportunity to mobilize this profound sadness into action, and advocate for those in my community and my region.
SAYWiW works mostly virtually, conducting cross-cultural dialogue on water issues. Most notably, we are working on a webinar series in collaboration with the World Bank on topics like the Inclusion of South Asian Women in Global Climate Forums. The goal is to facilitate conversations between subject-area experts and broader audiences, linking like-minded individuals to foster collaboration across borders.
Q) Why is it so important to center women in the water issue within South Asia?
Rahimi: Women represent half the population, and are thereby necessary to include in water governance. In South Asia, we face unique issues due to the lack of regular drinking water availability and transboundary water in the region.
Drinking water disparities and related poor healthcare infrastructure disproportionately impacts women and children. As traditional caretakers, women bear more societal water-related responsibilities compared to their male counterparts (cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc.). This positions them to be more impacted by water, which is why their voices should be amplified.
Transboundary water refers to water sources that are shared across country borders. Governing them requires collaborative approaches between countries, and those with stable economies are better capable of doing so– inherently marginalizing poorer, unstable countries. As an Afghan woman, internal conflict intersecting with economic insecurity has put water management on the backburner for our government, impacting our everyday lives. Centering women in water puts us on the path to water equity, which can give women more autonomy, allowing them to prioritize their education, livelihoods, and health.
Q) How can we work collectively (as a region, or as a global community) to center gender in the journey to ensure the human right to water?
As a citizen of the world, people have the responsibility to ensure and secure the prosperity of all humans, regardless of where they live. Women being discriminated against on the basis of their gender violates their rights as humans. Advocacy is an important first step, but it needs to be followed up with action– the global community needs to work collectively to prevent the violation of women’s rights. This means governments prioritizing sustainable water initiatives that improve access rather than worsen disparities; this means more funding toward women-led water organizations; this means putting women at the forefront of water governance. The world cannot silently watch these injustices occur.
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Rahimi’s words left me feeling newly inspired and emboldened. Climate change is not going to discriminate on the basis of GDP or gender, so why should climate action be constrained to these manufactures. On this World Water Day, we need to recognize the work necessary to build the world we want – where access to resources like water are not contingent on divisive borders or used as a tool to subjugate populations. We need to care for our world’s water. It can truly bring people together, as it did for Varshaben and her community. And policies behind governing water should welcome collaboration of diverse stakeholders and marginalized voices. Only by working together across borders can we actuate a reality that the earth and its ecosystems deserve.
