Vatteninfrastruktur: Deltagarbaserad forskning och design

The Challenge

Nearly one billion people worldwide lack reliable access to improved water (Hunter et al., 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, water-fetching is women’s work, and when villages lack water infrastructure, women and girls spend some 40 billion hours annually procuring water (Hutton et al., 2007).

Method: Participatory Research and Design

Because water procurement is women’s work, many women have detailed knowledge of soils and their water yields. This knowledge is vital to civil engineering and development projects—for instance, in determining where to place wells and water taps.

Gendered Innovations:

  1. Tapping into local women’s knowledge has improved the efficiency of water projects. A study of water projects in 13 nations revealed that “equal […] participation by women contributes to the success of community-managed water services” (Postma et al., 2003). Women’s participation also correlates strongly with project sustainability (Gross et al., 2001).
  2. Easy access to improved water supplies can improve school attendance for both girls and boys—hence helping to break the cycle of poverty.