GENDER & WATER
Addressing Gender (Inequality) in the (Urban) Water Sector in Kenya
(Author unknown)
In the water sector the differences in work load and participation between man and women are
staggering. Work load differences but also disadvantages of women in access to water related
jobs, information, participation in decision making etc. as well as specific risks women and girls
face such as security, etc. brings substantial inequalities among sex. Such Gender inequality
needs to be overcome. They work against progress in the sector but also against development
of the entire country. Tackling inequalities linked to urban water operations requires in the first
place interventions in low-income areas (planned or unplanned, informal or formal), thus, a propoor focus. In addition, it requires that the reform agenda and sector institutions with
implantation efforts are Gender sensitive.
Analysis of inequalities – the barriers to overcome:
1. Women and girls are generally the manager of water in the household and the guardian
of hygiene and health in the family. Therefore, inadequate service provision by
providers leads to often unacceptable inequality as women and girl are forced to spend
many hours to meet their family needs in water, hygiene and health (“time poverty”).
2. Women and girls in the urban and low-income areas are especially affected with
inadequate service provision and therefore Gender inequalities are highest among the
poor as routine and non-productive tasks cements their absence from profitable pursuits.
This weakens the social, political and economic position of women. Inadequate access to
water and sanitation cement poverty in the low-income areas.
3. In low income areas inhabitants are generally supplied by informal service providers
where consumers pay 5-10 times the price for water with doubtful quality than connected
consumers being supplied by a registered/formalized utility. This strains the budget of the
families of the poor and limits water consumption to a level where maintenance of proper
hygiene is hardly possible. In addition, women and girls cannot place a complaint as
informal providers operate without accountability.
4. Gender inequality is especially high where women and girls have no access to an outlet
for water near their household depending entirely on informal outlets far from the
household, neighbors or mobile vendors.
5. Men are main decision makers in the household which often results in the marginalization
of women and girls due to missing participation. View and preferences of women and
girls are often not heard.
6. Where access to sanitation is inadequate especially women suffer under missing
indignity, privacy and security being exposed to sexual assaults.
7. Women are often excluded from water for productive use by either being deprived in
participating in decision making (access to raw water sources) or deprived of access to
business around water such as Kiosk operation and jobs in sector institutions.
8. Address Gender issues in policies and strategies.
9. Development of onsite sanitation facilities lacks generally an institutional home. While
sanitation is hosted in the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation (concentrating mainly
on hygiene education) and infrastructure development is hosted in the Ministry of Water
and Irrigation (concentrating on centralized sewer system) many poor households are
deprived of access to (adequate) sanitation facilities. The main reasons are that
WSTF/UPC
Gender & Water
June 2012
decentralized systems are not promoted sufficiently and subsidization of plot level
sanitation is generally rejected (contrary to the cross subsidization in water supply). The
result is that women and girls are exposed to risks when walking long distances to
ablution blocks and spending for sanitation is much higher than for water as the size of
families escalates cost if members need to pay every time they use the sanitation facility.
10. Gender inequalities and impact of actions on it is often not known as monitoring and
information systems are not offering information in a gender-disaggregated way and
incorporated in reports of the sector institutions.
11. Women do often not have access to information in order to demand their rights and now
options.
Way forward to reduce Gender Inequalities
1. Reduce the routine and non-productive time to fetch water for women and girls by
improving access to domestic water and sanitation services such as bringing public
outlets, yard taps, and house connection closer to the households (according to ability to
pay) and promote plot level sanitation. This is a substantial contribution to break the cycle
of poverty among the urban poor (poverty reduction).
2. Concentrate on improvement of services in the low-income areas as generally the
underserved live in these areas and population is highest (urbanization).
3. Replace informal service provision by service provided by regulated utilities in the lowincome areas in order to ensure that also the poor receive services according to
requirement of rights to water and sanitation and have a possibility to be heard with their
complaints. Formalizing service provision aims at reducing reliance on middlemen.
Support utilities to make extension of formalized services into the low-income area a
priority and obtain the necessary capacities among the personnel (specialized pro-poor
units). Utilities need to build capacity to differentiate the various needs of customers.
Support the regulator to enforce the policy of rights to water and sanitation for all including
cross subsidization, incentives, etc.
4. Ensure that outlets (of utilities) are within the reach of 30min (full cycle) of a household to
fetch water by adopting minimum standards for low cost technology such as water kiosks
5. Ensure that the views and preferences of women and girls are heard e.g. in the design
and operation of outlets for water and sanitation facilities (technical and operational
standards include safety, consideration for the needs of children, etc.).
6. Promote (financing, construction, etc.) of sanitation facilities which offer easy access to
women and girls and which are affordable (overcome financial barriers of the poor to
access sanitation facilities).
7. Promote participation of women in decision making forums such as WRUAs, WAGs and
equality in business such as Kiosks / sanitation facility operator (Gender quota, e.g. 30%,
30% 50%), employees in sector institutions and members of board of directors (oversight
structures).
8. Gender issues are addressed in policies, strategies and legislation.
9. Provide landlords and tenants incentives to invest in quality sanitation facilities.
10. Design monitoring and information system to offer sex disaggregated data and ensure that
sector institutions report (regular reporting, brochures, etc.) on development in the
reductions of Gender inequalities (improved conditions for women, benefits most from
investments, reduction in price, in time spend, empowerment through representation,
involved in water related business, security, etc.).
11. Make information public (websites, at pay station and outlets, etc.) and offer interactive
mechanism. Offer online monitoring systems for complaints.
WSTF/UPC
Gender & Water
June 2012