Key actors for the water sector
When talking about water in Senegal, the Associations of Well Users (ASUFOR) are major decision-making bodies. In rural settings, the ASUFORs manage the production and distribution of water as well as the maintenance of installations and equipment. Women, who are the first users of water, have little say in these decision-making bodies. Ami Colle Mbodj is the president of the ASUFOR of Ouadiour in Fatick.
Even in ASUFORs where women are rather well represented, they usually do not hold key positions such as the presidency or treasury. Of the 400 ASUFORs in the 4 intervention regions (Kaolack, Fatick, Kaffrine and Diourbel) only four are presided by a women. The under-representation of women inside ASUFORs is often related to various social and cultural constraints, especially where there is strong religious influence, and to practical matters such as the water chores of women, due to which they have too much work to attend meetings. Sometimes women are just not well-informed as to the renewal of the bodies and therefore cannot submit their candidacy.
Advocacy
Through its Drinking Water and Renovation Programme in the Bassin Arachidier , BTC tries to get the statutory texts of the ASUFORs actually complied with. These texts define quotas as to women’s representation. Whereas the boards of ASUFORs should be constituted of 50% of women, the June 2011 figures for the Diourbel region for instance show only 35% of women.
Gender is an issue that is at the core of the Drinking Water and Renovation Programme of BTC. With the help of the Association for the Promotion of Women in Senegal (APROFES), a NGO that works on the gender issue, a charter has been drawn up for advocacy within ASUFORs, rural communities, regional services and ministries concerned. This initiative aims at improving the compliance with statutory texts and next at having men and women taking on a fair share of responsibility. This Charter will clarify not just the texts already existing but it will also propose improvements, even while taking into account the realities in the field.
Even while there are more women inside ASUFORs, we find today that the quotas – which are only a progressive step towards equality – are not always respected when bodies are renewed. The final objective of the programme is to come to equality between men and women, as stipulated in the Senegalese Constitution, in the ASUFORs and in the Rural Councils in general.
