Water and Gender: Putting Women at the Centre of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus

Women play a central part in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water; however, in East and Southeast Asia, they face inequality in three major ways. That is, they disproportionately suffer from a lack of water and sanitation, have unequal access to land rights and water for productive use, and finally, they have low representation in water governance and management. This negatively influences the safe, productive, and healthy lives of women and girls. To solve these problems, this paper gives three recommendations. First, governments and private sectors should invest in infrastructure—water, sanitation, energy, and transport—to reduce the amount of time that women spend collecting water, reduce violence, and improve their well-being. Second, policies and laws should be developed to promote women’s equal rights to land ownership and water access. Third, governments should enable women’s meaningful and substantive participation in water management through capacity development and access to information, knowledge, and technology.