Women and Water Resources: Continued marginalisation and new policies

Over the past decade, the policy context for water resources has profoundly changed. Once the emphasis of policy makers was on planning the physical provision of water resources through the identification, design, appraisal, and implementation of projects. Now, however, the emphasis has shifted to the task of managing water resource systems. The key idea is that the state ceases to be a provider of water resources, and instead promotes and facilitates, creating an enabling environment for others to provide and use water resources. The policy focus has shifted from projects to programmes; from the micro level to the macro level. The emphasis is on creating a ‘sector’ for water-related activities by the establishment of a framework by governments and external donor agencies in which communities can themselves construct, operate, and manage improved facilities (Briscoe
and de Ferranti, 1988).