Women, Gender and Water

Reliable, regular access to clean water is a major social and environmental issue for Trinidad and Tobago. The public water supply might accurately be described as “haphazardly intermittent.” This affects women and men in similar but also in different ways. Women, whose households have limited access to pipe borne water, encounter many difficulties and attempt to find solutions to this problem. Gender analysis must figure prominently in the national water resources management plan currently being developed, to insure sustainable water resource management for the nation.

This project’s objectives are as follows:

• To examine the gendered use of water and water resources in Trinidad & Tobago and the implications for policy;

• To explore the possibilities for a more people-oriented/cost effective and sustainable water supply in Trinidad & Tobago;

• To elaborate the critical role of women in the management and use of water;

• To empower women, men and communities to assume responsibility for the management of their water supply;

• To increase popular awareness of the sources of water and the conditions under which it is replenished;

• To inform policy on water resources and water distribution in Trinidad and Tobago

The following have so far resulted from this initiative: -

• A paper was presented to a special workshop of The Third World Academy of Sciences in July 2004 based on research undertaken in the village of Plum Mitan, Trinidad
  
• A training workshop entitled, ‘Gender, Water and Natural Resource Management’ was held on March 11th 2005, the aim of which was to sensitize interested researchers and practitioners, who might previously have been unfamiliar with gender concepts and analysis.
  
• An ethnographic study of three communities in Trinidad, examining the relationship that men and women have with water.

A regional workshop is being planned for December 2005 to be followed by a larger international symposium in December 2006 at which the integration of gender issues into all levels of water resources management will be discussed. These events will also serve to ensure that women are fairly represented in the water sector.