In a historic turn of events, the Sindh Assembly has passed the Water Management (Amendment) Bill, 2018, granting the well-deserved and long-impending share to women in managing water for farming.
The legislation is a result of a decades-long struggle led by local farmers for equitable distribution of water, led by women who demanded more control over their agricultural work.
While water scarcity has been a predicament across the province of Sindh, for female farmers in the region, the fight has also been about undoing the patriarchal order that impacts their lives and livelihoods.
The fresh amendment guarantees representation of women in provincial water bodies, which includes 45,000 Water Course Associations (WCAs), over 350 Farmer organizations (FOs), and 14 Area Water Boards (WBA).
Those in cognizance of the agricultural scenario of Sindh understand the importance of water for farmers of the province. The once fertile lands of Thatta and Badin have now turned barren. To address the situation, the provincial parliament passed the Sindh Water Management Ordinance (SWMO) in 2002, which directed the establishment of farmers’ organizations at each distributary, for the equal distribution of water. However, the issue with the step was that it had not offered proper representation to the women farmers.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBC), 77% of farmers in Sindh are women, a huge number, given that a large part of the province is urban.
A 2015 FOA study underscored that the role of women in the agriculture sector has increased in the last two decades. One of the main reasons is that a large number of village men have left for villages for developed areas for better earnings and to escape the landlord system.
This has put women farmers in the lead role, as the report indicates:
“Women in Sindh are involved in crop production from sowing to harvesting stages, rural women in agriculture, they should be recognized as women farmers rather than sharecroppers or helpers. Women in rural Sindh work on average for 12-14 hours a day.”
The road to victory was long and took many years to achieve. It could not have been ascertained without the due political support. And likely so, a female Member of the Sindh Assembly, Rana Ansar, started her struggle.
The Mutahida Qoumi Movement (MQM) lawmaker believed that women have no visible role in water resource management. She raised the issue during a consultative dialogue on Sindh Water Management Ordinance (SWMO) Amendment. While addressing the session, Ansar said: “This must be addressed in the SWMO amendment so that women are encouraged to identify issues pertaining to the province’s water needs and make required decisions.”
Sharing viewpoint on the matter, Chairman of Sindh Commission on the Status of Women, Nuzhat Sherin maintained that: “All parliamentarians of Sindh support this amendment bill, and all parties are lobbying to pass it.”
Later, while speaking in a televised interview, Ansar said that the bill mandates all watercourse associations, FOs, Board of Governance of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority, and AWBs to include at least two women.
“If 46,000 WCAs are in Sindh then 92,000 women will become the part of WCAs all,” she said.
She regarded it as the ‘historic achievement’ because if any of these bodies would not include two women, they would become ineffective, which eventually would lead to disqualification.
Feminist activists call the bill a ray of hope for women farmers across the country and hope that women in other provinces would also get such rights and power so that they can make decisions for their own lands, and exercise control over their farming and distribution of water.
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