Impacts of domestic water supply on gender and income: Results from a participatory study in a drought-prone region in Gujarat, India.
Abstract
In this paper the value of an improved domestic water supply was investigated for economic development and gender relations in rural households in a drought-prone area. A comparative study executed with participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods with groups of women from 11 micro-enterprises in ten villages and five control villages showed that,when an improved domestic water supply does not function, the entrepreneurs groups have a statistically higher loss of the economic use of water and time than the control groups. The extra income that women gain when the supply works and is used economically helps poor families to bridge the dry season. It could further be quantitatively proven that male–female gender relations were significantly better in the entrepreneurs group. This was not so for mother–daughter relationships, which gave new insights into the need to address gender equality issues with the women themselves and with SEWA, the supporting agency. These findings support the view that rural poverty and the status of women would receive a significant boost if policy makers focused on providing employment opportunities for women along with improved water supplies.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
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.”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [105]
In India, initiatives improved relationships between men and women.
“improved relationships between men and women (India [105])”
From Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis (2022) · cites this paper as [105]
Cites
(1971) · Cited by 2,327 · see citing works
Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour
Bonnin, D., Friedman, M., Todes, A., & Mies, M. (1989) · Agenda · doi:10.2307/4065655 · Cited by 1,496 · see citing works
Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought
Kabeer, N. (1994) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,362 · see citing works
Understanding Gender and Organizations
Alvesson, M. G., & Billing, Y. D. (2009) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446280133 · Cited by 825 · see citing works
King, E. M., & Mason, A. (2001) · World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks · doi:10.1596/0-1952-1596-6 · Cited by 781 · see citing works
Gender in Water Resources Management, Water Supply and Sanitation: Roles and Realities Revisited
van Wijk-Sijbesma, C. (1998) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 71 · see citing works
James, A. J., Verhagen, J., van Wijk, C., Nanavaty, R., Parikh, M., & Bhatt, M. R. (2002) · Natural Resources Forum · doi:10.1111/0165-0203.00022 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Controlling and Preventing Disease
Rottier, E., & Ince, M. (2003) · Loughborough University Institutional Repository (Loughborough University) · Cited by 11 · see citing works
A water programme in Vietnam and its impact on women
Hitchcox, L. (1992) · Development in Practice · doi:10.1080/096145249100076521 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Hannan, C. (2000) · Lund University Publications (Lund University) · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 11 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Intermittent Domestic Water Supply: A Critical Review and Analysis of Causal-Consequential Pathways
Galaitsi, S., Russell, R. A., Bishara, A., Durant, J. L., Bogle, J., & Huber‐Lee, A. (2016) · Water · doi:10.3390/w8070274 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
Water, sanitation, and women’s empowerment: A systematic review and qualitative metasynthesis
Caruso, B. A., Conrad, A., Patrick, M., Owens, A., Kviten, K., Zarella, O., Rogers, H., & Sinharoy, S. S. (2022) · PLOS Water · doi:10.1371/journal.pwat.0000026 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Women at The Frontline of Climate Change - Gender Risks and Hopes
Nellemann, C., Verma, R., & Hislop, L. (2011) · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Van Houweling, E. (2016) · Society & Natural Resources · doi:10.1080/08941920.2015.1095377 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Assessing the social vulnerability of small-scale farmer's to drought in uMsinga, KwaZulu-Natal
Lottering, S., Mafongoya, P., & Lottering, R. T. (2021) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102568 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Urban Green-space Water-consumption characteristics and its driving factors in China
Guo, J., Niu, H., Xiao, D., Sun, X., & Fan, L. (2021) · Ecological Indicators · doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.108076 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Das, M. B. (2017) · World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks · doi:10.1596/27949 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Nagata, J. M., Miller, J. D., Cohen, C. R., Frongillo, E. A., Weke, E., Burger, R. L., Wekesa, P., Sheira, L. A., Mocello, A. R., Otieno, P. A., et al. (2021) · AIDS and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10461-021-03410-w · Cited by 23 · see citing works
HIV and H2O: Tracing the Connections Between Gender, Water and HIV
West, B. S., Hirsch, J. S., & El-Sadr, W. M. (2012) · AIDS and Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10461-012-0219-9 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Differential Impact Analysis for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study from Nepal
Khadka, C., Upadhyaya, A., Edwards‐Jonášová, M., Dhungana, N., Baral, S., & Cudlín, P. (2022) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su14169825 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Water and time use: evidence from Kathmandu, Nepal
Chen, Y. J., Chindarkar, N., & Zhao, J. (2019) · Water Policy · doi:10.2166/wp.2019.082 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Productive Time of Women and Water Supply in Ijumu, Local Government Area, Kogi State, Nigeria.
Ifabiyi, I. P., Usman, B. A., Orire, I. O., & Aledare, A. (2010) · Global Journal of Human-Social Science · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Estudio Mundial sobre el Papel de la Mujer en el Desarrollo
General, A. (2009) · Cited by 5 · see citing works
The Benefits of Improved Water Supply: Lessoned Learnedfrom Sri Lanka
Sriyalatha, M. A. K. (2016) · IOSR Journal of Economics and Finance · doi:10.9790/5933-0704025866
The Benefits of Improved Water Supply: Lessons learned from
Lanka, S. S. (2016)
Pandey, S., Mohapatra, G., & Arora, R. (2024) · The Singapore Economic Review · doi:10.1142/s0217590824500395
Sharma, R., Nandigama, S., & Bhattacharyya, T. (2025) · Social Sciences & Humanities Open · doi:10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.102145
- Authors
- Sijbesma, C., Verhagen, J., Nanavaty, R., & James, A. J.
- Affiliations
- IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre (NL)
- Self-Employed Women's Association, Opposite Victoria Garden, Bhadra, Ahmedabad, 380 001, India
- PRAGMATIX, 520 Galleria, DLF City Phase IV, Gurgaon, Haryana 122002, India
- Corresponding author
- Sijbesma, Christine
- Venue
- Water Policy
- Publisher
- IWA Publishing
- Published
- 2009-02-01
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 95-105
- ISSN
- 1366-7017 (ISSN-L)
- 1996-9759
- OpenAlex
- W2047324487
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 1.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Water Policy (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Styrelsen för Internationellt Utvecklingssamarbete
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water Resource Management and Quality
- Social Sciences › Education › Gender, Education, and Development Issues
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- domestic water supply, gender relations, women's income, rural poverty, drought-prone areas, time use, mother-daughter relationships, SEWA, participatory rural appraisal, Gujarat
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
