Gender analyses of community water resources management in Ga East municipal assembly
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Date
2015-04-17
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University of Ghana
Abstract
Much research has been done on the involvement of communities in
water resources management, but little can be said about community
water management through gender lenses. The study seeks to analyze
the relationship between gender and portable water resources
management in the Ga East District Assembly, Ghana. The Gender
Ana lysis Matrix (GAM) was employed to determine the role of women
in water management as well as the different impact that water
development projects and intervention have on women and men. A
semi-structured interview guide was employed to interview key
water management informants such as board members, assemblymen/
women, and workers of Municipal Assembly. the community
representatives had mostly males to be their chairman and secretary,
while the females were organizers and hygiene educators. In water
economics, the board raises two main sources of income for the
management of the scheme: from stand pipes vendors and from water
tariffs from households. About90% of the stand pipes are managed by
women. On socio-cultural factors, the women on board had meetings
with the community women to clean all the standpipes, reservoirs,
and other parts of the towns every month. In conclusion, community
water resources management in the study area is not gender blind but
there should be involvement of middle income women residents and
also sensitization of the communities to be gender sensitive when
electing board members for water management.
Description
School of social sciences colloquium
Keywords
Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM), District Assembly, socio-cultural factors, communities