Patrycja STAL, Technical University of Berlin / Tiwani Foundation, Germany
Moutiou YESSOUFOU, Technical University of Berlin / Tiwani Foundation, Germany
Session AS3: Africa and natural resource use/management
Women carry 62 percent of the responsibility of collecting water in sub-Saharan Africa - they act as the agent of change for water distribution, water safety and the future of drinking water management in the region.
Despite playing a crucial role in the distribution of water across communities, women rarely participate in the decision making on the water management issues such as location, size and maintenance of the local water points. Climate change, water shortages, centralized decision-making process of the regulatory bodies, scarce access to safe water points, traditional gender roles and lack of information are among factors resulting in unequal power dynamics in relation to management of drinking water, benefiting land-owners and private institutions rather than the primary stakeholders.
Social sustainability behind future water distribution and conservation requires women to become a central part of the framework governing the access and management of water resources. This paper evaluates strategies to incorporate female voices into the water governance and their possible outcomes, based on the water-well mapping programme in a peri-urban area of Sèmè-Podji in Benin (2021 - ongoing).
Keywords: water management |female geographies|stakeholder participation|water governance|women and water
A103808PS