Abstract
South Africa’s National Water Act and National Water Resource Strategy set out an ambitious societal vision with a strong focus on the redistribution of water resources towards the marginalised and on empowering historically disadvantaged communities including women. This vision is reflected in the framework for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) that acknowledges women as pivotal in water management practices. Based on this premise, this paper examines the challenges women face in performing their roles in IWRM in rural South Africa. It draws on a study of a water user association that operates in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The design of the study was qualitative in nature with a semi-structured interview as the main data collection tool. The interview involved 14 respondents from Limpopo. The results showed marked gender difference in terms of roles performed. Based on the study, three kinds of roles were revealed: domestic, productive and decision-making roles. Men were significantly involved in productive roles, giving low priority to domestic roles. The key factors found to affect the role of women in decision-making in IWRM were cultural practices, low self-confidence, low levels of capacity, and high workloads. These factors were identified as key institutional inherent within the specific society. As such, these findings have significant implications for the efforts aimed at promoting gender equality. Particularly, the impact of culture on women in water management raises concerns regarding gender issues in rural and remote areas where people are poorer and more culturally conservative.
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Acknowledgments
The author wish to acknowledge the support of the International River Foundation (IRF), Australia, an organisation with the aim of protecting rivers and creating awareness for healthy rivers around the globe. The view expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IRF and the Water Research Node, Monash University, South Africa campus.
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Ethical clearance to conduct this study was sought and obtained from the Monash University Research Ethics Committee (MUHREC). Permission was also obtained from the Mutale WUA before selection and interviews were conducted. The study was classified as a low-risk research, implying that questions asked were simple and straightforward with minimal level of risk to respondents.
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Elias, F. The practice of Integrated Water Resources Management in South Africa: challenges of women in water user associations. GeoJournal 82, 1165–1177 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-016-9736-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-016-9736-9