| Abstract |
Based on a comprehensive vision of how sustainable, efficient and effective water management and conservation systems can be achieved, this report contained the following 21 recommendations:
1. New water management policies should be designed in such a way as to safeguard and promote the livelihoods of women, especially those in vulnerable social sectors of the globe.
2. Women should be drawn into the process of consultation at all levels when policy is created, systems developed and mechanisms designed.
3. Women's capacities to engage in public consultation processes should be enhanced so they can contribute to this global endeavour. The constraints on their participation should be addressed: time and costs of participation; timing and location of meetings etc.
4. Women's rights to water should be ensured, as well as women's rights to participate in water-related organisations and institutions. Creative legal mechanisms should be devised and enforced to prevent the restriction of water access and control only to those with land rights, and to prevent the restriction of participation in decision-making processes and institutions to those with land-rights or to 'heads of households'.
5. Women's knowledge and experience of water management should be acknowledged as a global resource to be developed, encouraged and used.
6. Gender analysis should be integrated into all water research, problem diagnosis and formulation of solutions and actions.
7. Strict systems of public control must be designed and put into place to ensure that private companies do not exploit the basic need for water for the sake of profit. Stepped tariffs are essential to ensure that households, small family business and large enterprises be charged for water on a differential basis.
8. Pricing of water must take into account the fact that water is a human need as well as an input into economic activity. Stringent legal mechanisms at an international level should ensure that water is not simply sold to the highest bidder but is first made available on the basis of basic need. Careful studies must be undertaken to discover what women are able to pay for sufficient supplies to maintain adherence to health and nutrition targets, and home production of food. Pricing policies must take into account women's unpaid or underpaid contributions to the economy, and avoid adding further burdens on the shoulders of women.
9. Women should be encouraged to enter the water management industry at all levels, so they can contribute to and benefit from any additional resources going into this sector. Training programmes should be launched to ensure that women and girls are equipped with the relevant technical, managerial, organisational and social skills needed.
10. Gender training programmes must be launched for water management personnel at all levels, so that the design and execution of projects ensure equitable access to all regardless of gender and class.
11. Water conservation projects and programmes should be directed towards involving women - who often have a wealth of knowledge regarding local water circumstances compared with men and outside experts. Women's skills in water conservation strategies should be upgraded.
12. Women's experience in setting up low-cost water delivery systems on a co-operative basis should be built on. Credit facilities should be made available and technical support offered to these initiatives.
13. The Polluter-Pays-Principle should be strictly applied in the case of water sources, so that those who have not benefited from the fouling of the earth's water supplies are not forced to pay for remediation and increased costs of water delivery. The Polluter-Pays-Principle should also be applied retrospectively.
14. The use of chemical fertilisers and additives in agriculture should be more balanced. Further, the international system of food production, distribution, trade, and agriculture in general, should be critically and genuinely evaluated to discover where the wastage of water really occurs. A comparative analysis of mixed versus mono-cropping systems should be made to evaluate relative water efficiency and net nutrient depletion.
15. Governments and public bodies should be asked to enact strict regulation against pollution of groundwater and other water sources. Private industry should be brought into the process of establishing standards and control mechanisms.
16. Increased efforts to slow the rate of climate change and mitigate its impacts under the UN framework convention on climate change and protocols so as to limit its detrimental effects on agriculture world-wide.
17. Public awareness campaigns should be maintained to build a general consensus as to the need for changes in lifestyles to support water conservation and more efficient usage. Non-governmental organisations and women's organisations should be supported to use and develop their information channels for sustaining this campaign. Industrial processes must be redesigned to minimise water use whilst maximising water recovery.
18. Annual water audits, based on gender-disaggregated data, should be published each year on the state of play regarding water resources, water issues, water conflicts, actions taken by national and local governments, and non-governmental organisations.
19. Research into low-cost, innovative, conservation and delivery systems should be stimulated and their application encouraged by local communities and women's organisations.
20. Effective community-created strategies in this area should be documented, their guiding principles explored, and efforts at replication launched. Women's organisations and other community groups should be provided with the channels for sharing their knowledge and experience in this field, and for stimulating other groups to explore new methods.
21. Structural Agreement programmes should be examined and, if necessary, altered, so as to ensure that economic development programmes in the third world do not promote water-polluting or water-wasting industries and agriculture.
|
