Water for Poor Women: Quest for an Alternative Paradigm, by Sayeed Iftekhar Ahmed, develops an alternative governance paradigm to ensure poor women's water security through their participation in the governance process. This study assesses the effects of governance on water di...

From the founders of nonprofits Water.org & WaterEquity Gary White and Matt Damon, the incredible true story of two unlikely allies on a mission to end the global water crisis for good On any given morning, you might wake up and shower with water, make your coffee with water, flush your toilet with water—and think nothing of it. But around the world, more than three-quarters of a billion people can’t do any of that—because they have no clean water source near their homes. And 1.7 billion don’t have access to a toilet. This crisis affects a third of the people on the planet. It keeps kids out of school and women out of work. It traps people in extreme poverty. It spreads disease. It’s also solvable. That conviction is what brought together movie actor Matt Damon and water expert and engineer Gary White. They spent years getting the answer wrong, then halfway right, then almost right. Over time, they and their organization, Water.org, have found an approach that works. Working with partners across East Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, they’ve helped over 40 million people access water and/or sanitation. In The Worth of Water, Gary and Matt take us along on the journey—telling stories as they uncover insights, try out new ideas, and travel between the communities they serve and the halls of power where decisions get made. With humor and humility, they illuminate the challenges of launching a brand-new model with extremely high stakes: better health and greater prosperity for people allover the world. The Worth of Water invites us to become a part of this effort—to match hope with resources, to empower families and communities, and to end the global water crisis for good. All the authors’ proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Water.org.

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at its core. A dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) declares a commitment to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." Monitoring progress toward this goal will be challenging: direct measures of water and sanitation service quality and use are either expensive or elusive. However, reliance on household surveys poses limitations and likely overstated progress during the Millennium Development Goal period. In Innovations in WASH Impact Measures: Water and Sanitation Measurement Technologies and Practices to Inform the Sustainable Development Goals, we review the landscape of proven and emerging technologies, methods, and approaches that can support and improve on the WASH indicators proposed for SDG target 6.1, "by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all," and target 6.2, "by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations." Although some of these technologies and methods are readily available, other promising approaches require further field evaluation and cost reductions. Emergent technologies, methods, and data-sharing platforms are increasingly aligned with program impact monitoring. Improved monitoring of water and sanitation interventions may allow more cost-effective and measurable results. In many cases, technologies and methods allow more complete and impartial data in time to allow program improvements. Of the myriad monitoring and evaluation methods, each has its own advantages and limitations. Surveys, ethnographies, and direct observation give context to more continuous and objective electronic sensor data. Overall, combined methodologies can provide a more comprehensive and instructive depiction of WASH usage and help the international development community measure our progress toward reaching the SDG WASH goals.

At birth and death, and each day in between, individual human need for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is near constant. While WASH is intensely personal, it is also about power, inequality, development and social justice. Inadequate WASH provision both results from and causes continuing poverty, and serves to reinforce gender and other inequalities. Women and girls experience WASH needs differently from men, both as individuals, and as societies' carers. Gender and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene highlights the importance of WASH provision for women and girls in their own right, as carers for families and communities, and as key to women's empowerment.

Can women bring a fresh perspective to the provision of global sanitation services? The co-authors of this book, through their strong socio-political and scientific experiences, believe this to be the case. The book offers a critical look at the challenges and solutions needed to achieve Sanitation for All, including for vulnerable people, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless, or internally displaced persons, and especially women. We present sanitation policy and decision making from the perspective of women, providing conclusions to the prevailing debates. In 2022, 43% of the world’s population lacked access to safely managed sanitation. Poor sanitation is linked to the transmission of diarrhoeal diseases, exacerbates stunting, and contributes to the spread of antimicrobial resistance. In low-income countries, 5% of deaths are associated with unsafe sanitation. Poor sanitation affects mental well-being and safety, especially for women and children. Lack of sanitation costs around 2% of GDP (a figure that increases rapidly with epidemic outbreaks) because of income losses from trade and tourism and the impact on water quality. Besides being part of our human right to water, sanitation is essential to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals on poverty, health, education, gender, water, equity, cities and the sustainable environment. Nevertheless, convincing politicians to invest in sanitation is a daunting challenge since, in contrast to drinking water, it is not an immediate vote-winner and is perceived as an unpleasant topic for public discussion. Despite this, to achieve the SDG target by 2030, a five-fold increase on current rates of progress will be required. The role of women in sanitation planning and implementation is key, due to their leadership in communities and their ability to organise and guarantee the sustainability of systems. Furthermore, women’s care-giving nature at home and in their communities has led them to understand the importance of sanitation and being open to discussing it publicly; women stand ready to raise the profile of this subject, putting it on a higher level on the political agenda. This book is vital reading not just for women but all stakeholders and partners in the water industry, especially those working in the sanitation and hygiene sectors.

Literature survey of the participation of rural women in water supply and sanitation (community development) in developing countries - covers women's traditional involvement in maintenance and management of water supplies, their current role in planning and implementation of development projects for improving water supply and sanitation, socio- economic and health benefits from the projects, etc.; includes an annotated bibliography. Photographs, references, statistical tables.