Poverty is rife in Uganda in both urban and rural communities. This chapter outlines
the situation for poor women securing water for their households in a rural village. It
gives an account of poor women’s ‘fluid lives’ as they engage in efforts to secure water
for their households and participate in water governance at community level where
there are persistent water-related problems. The authors conducted a socio-economic
study of households in a poor rural parish in order to better understand women’s safe
water access and participation in the management of a healthy community water
supply. The study findings confirm that gender remains an important analytical tool
for identifying access issues, since gender relations and inequalities are evident in most
of the mechanisms of access to water in this community. The chapter explores how
women and children remain vulnerable to lack of access to safe water, even where there
are community schemes and improved water sources in place, since for the most part
powerful, formal positions such as village chairperson, water user committee member,
and handpump mechanic continue to be held by men. This is despite the fact that,
in the case of water user committees in particular, the 1999 National Water Policy
stipulates that women should make up 50 per cent of such committees. In addition,
payment arrangements, particularly maintenance and repair fees, frequently result in
denying vulnerable children and women physical access to water resources whenever
men, as household heads, do not pay these fees. Strategies which seek to improve
women’s access to safe water and power in community organization of water remain
essential.