Some factors influencing effective utilization of drinking water facilities: women, income, and health in rural north Ghana

Abstract

In the examination of the implementation of rural drinking water facilities, not enough attention has been paid to analyzing the socioeconomic and political relationships that affect the effective utilization of the facilities, particularly as these relate to women in rural society. This paper suggests that much of the difficulty in instituting the utilization of safe water supply sources has to do with the rather low economic status of women--the main water collectors. Poverty consigns women to long periods of work in activities or jobs that bring little reward. This makes it difficult to effectively digest the messages delivered by program staff and limits the extent of usage of the safe water facilities.For the past three decades, much international attention has been fi)cused on the marginalization of women in all spheres of societal activity despite the important roles they play in socioeconomic development (Akanji 1992). In the rural areas of the developing countries, for instance, women reportedly provide over 7(1% of the labor force in agriculture, in addition to the traditional domestic responsibilities. Yet, in many areas, women cannot own land and often cultivate on marginal lands (Imam 1990, Gakou 1987. They have little access to credit and extension services to improve productivity (Andah 1978, Roncoli 1985. Facilities for health care and water supply are equally appallingly inadequate.The above problems led to the call on governments and women's movements to strive to improve the economic conditions of women (Moser 1989). The United Nations Women's Decade (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985) was launched to address these issues, "aimed at drawing attention to outstanding omissions in national development strategies which have contributed not only to lack of scientific appraisal but also the remedy of social conditions of women, children and youth" (Pala and Seidman 1976 as cited in Bortei-Doku 1992). Women in Development (WID) projects have been and are being established in many countries to pro-KEY WORDS: Condition of women: Water supply; Sanitation; Rural health vide basic needs. These include water-supply and income-generating projects.Other academic discussions, however, view the improvement of the economic condition of women as insut'ficient to redress the imbalances in access to socioeconomic and political resources between men and women (see Moser 1989 for a review). These discussions culminated in the call for structural changes in gender relationships, emphasizing not just the biological differences between men and women but also the social relationships (Molyneaux 1985, Imam 1990.Two approaches to gender planning in development emerged: ( 1 ) the concern to improve the economic conditions of women (practical gender needs), and (2) the need to transcend basic needs provisions to political reahns (strategfic gender needs). While most developing country govern ments and the international donor community continue to fund WID projects to improve practical gender ne...

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