Sustainable development, water resources management and women’s empowerment: the Wanaraniya Water Project in Sri Lanka.

WASH programs have increased trust, acceptance, and respect for women as community decision-makers, increased women's roles in household decision-making, and improved women's reported ability to express themselves.

“WASH programs have increased trust, acceptance, and respect for women as community decision-makers (India [129] and Sri Lanka [56]), increased women's roles in household decision-making (India [139] and Vietnam [58]), and improved women's reported ability to express themselves (Costa Rica [63]).”

Women's formal leadership has led to increased confidence among and toward women leaders.

“Women's formal leadership has led to increased confidence among and toward women leaders [26,56,73,126,146,157].”

Women's collective action has led to funding, demand, construction, repair, and maintenance of water services and latrines.

“Women's collective action has led to funding, demand, construction, repair, and maintenance of water services [56, 61, 73, 78, 89, 91, 125, 129, 163, 165, 168, 169, 193, 296] and latrines [129, 139, 147, 168, 170, 174, 175].”

Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, provide community education about water safety, monitor open defecation, and respond to sanitation-related harassment.

“Women have organized to form lending groups to support women-led WASH businesses, [66] provide community education about water safety, [56, 61, 73, 78, 89, 91, 125, 129, 163, 165, 168, 169, 193, 296] monitor open defecation, [145] and respond to sanitation-related harassment.[174]”

Women's involvement in WASH-related collective action has led to sustained involvement in water and sanitation issues as well as collective action around non-WASH issues, and also has encouraged respect from community members, including men.

“Women's involvement in WASH-related collective action has led to sustained involvement in water and sanitation issues [89,163] as well as collective action around non-WASH issues, [56,126,145] and also has encouraged respect from community members, including men [26,56,89,166].”

Awareness of their unequal position in society was reported to influence how women approached resolving water issues in Sri Lanka and Mexico, and sanitation issues in India.

“Awareness of their unequal position in society was reported to influence how women approached resolving water issues in Sri Lanka [56] and Mexico, [163] and sanitation issues in India [145].”

Improved self-confidence, including willingness to speak up, was reported regarding women's participation in WASH programs and campaigns in India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam; women in India reported improvements in self-confidence, dignity, and work and life circumstances due to improvements in water supply; and in Indonesia, some women reported feeling confident to challenge traditional gender roles

“Improved self-confidence, including willingness to speak up, was reported regarding women's participation in WASH programs and campaigns in India, [89,139,145] Sri Lanka, [56] and Vietnam [58].Women in India reported improvements in self-confidence, dignity, and work and life circumstances due to improvements in water supply [129,279].In Indonesia, some women reported feeling confident to”

Water and sanitation have both supported and constrained women's income generation; women have engaged in job opportunities like water vending, meter reading and water tank cleaning, water management, water filter and toilet pan selling, and rainwater harvesting container construction, as well as water-dependent income-generating activities and sanitation-related activities.

“Water and sanitation have both supported and constrained women's income generation.Specifically, women have engaged in job opportunities, like water vending, [89] meter reading and water tank cleaning, [56] water management, [30,121] water filter and toilet pan selling, [66] and rainwater harvesting container construction [121,161].They have also engaged in water-dependent income-generating”

Water and sanitation improvements have freed up time for other income-generating activities; conversely, women's income generation has been constrained by poor water access, limited employment opportunities, or by WASH initiatives themselves.

“Finally, water and sanitation improvements have freed up time for other income-generating activities [56,67,105,174,194,210,295].Conversely, women's income generation has been constrained by poor water access, limited employment opportunities, or by WASH initiatives themselves.”

Some water and sanitation initiatives have shifted norms and expectations in women's favor.

“Some water and sanitation initiatives have shifted norms and expectations in women's favor [26,56,125,126].”

In Sri Lanka, a women's group's successful water project demonstrated women's capacity to conduct public WASH projects.

“In Sri Lanka, a women's group's successful water project demonstrated women's capacity to conduct public WASH projects [56].”

In India, initiatives led to heightened status of women in and outside the home and positive attitudes and support for women's collective work.

“heightened status of women in and outside the home and positive attitudes and support for women's collective work (India [56]);”