by April Hale
Daily Lobo
Sara Ahmed, a water researcher from India, said during a presentation Tuesday in Dane Smith Hall that women play important roles in water issues, especially at a domestic level.
"Very often at the household level it is the woman's responsibility," Ahmed said. "If women's needs are not addressed at the beginning of an initiative, there won't be equity."
The presentation, titled "Flowing Upstream: Empowering Women Through Water Management Initiatives," specifically targeted water initiatives in Gujarat, India, with slides that showed women carrying water pots on their heads and pictures of desolate landscapes.
One slide stated that, "women's limited access to formal power structures or critical resource rights (e.g. land ownership) reduces their capacity to negotiate for water system that address their diverse water-related needs."
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Basia Irland, an art history professor and founder of the International Water Institute invited Ahmed to speak to the students of the UNM water management program about water initiatives in India.
"We're corresponding and comparing water issues in terms of complexity and similarities," said Irland. "It's absolutely necessary to look at ways to save water when there's a drought."
"It's advantageous to see how another country deals with drought," Irland said.
Irland is currently working on two projects, water born diseases and rainwater harvesting with Beverly Singer from Santa Clara Pueblo. Irland and Ahmed will visit the pueblo in the next couple of days to evaluate their water issues.
"I'd loved to learn more about water harvesting in New Mexico and minnow situation in the Rio Grande," Ahmed said.
"In general water is a very critical aspect of development now more than before," said Adriana Villar, a graduate student in the Community and Regional Planning program, whose interest is community development and the roles of women.
"She reinforced the value of research for communities to address water issues," Villar said.
Ahmed said that wells are a primary source of water in Gujarat and also function as a meeting place. However, wells bring pain as well. In the village of Saurashtra, wells are a place where young girls commit suicide due to domestic violence or poverty. This act has become a common event, Ahmed said.
"In India women have a little voice about water policy," Ahmed said. "It's easier to ignore them than to involve them in water management interventions."
Ahmed said that men and women have different access to water and that households are undifferentiated categories.
Male roles are important as well however they are slightly changing, Ahmed said.
