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CARE West Bank and Gaza Implementing a Pioneering Project in Water Management 2 May 2007. In the village of Qabatya in the Jenin area of the West Bank, the EMPOWERS project (the Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios), is building the capacity of women in particular, to work in advocacy that will improve their water situation. Qabatya has approximately 23,000 inhabitants. Unemployment in Qabatya stands at 30% and most of the people are farmers or workers in stone quarries. Qabatya, in the northern part of the West Bank, is part of the EMPOWERS project implemented by CARE with funding from the European Commission. EMPOWERS is working with people in villages in Jordan, Egypt and the West Bank to help local communities and empower them to work collectively to overcome water challenges they are facing. By working with community based organizations in each village, EMPOWERS concentrates on giving the villagers the skills and knowledge they need to assess the needs of their community, how to develop a realistic vision for the future, and how to go about realizing that vision. EMPOWERS brings stakeholders from all backgrounds together into a roundtable discussion in order to achieve a complete participatory approach and to raise awareness from the end user up to the ministry level. EMPOWERS aims to nurture the capacity of people, especially end users, to engage proactively with the challenges they face and to work with the authorities to achieve an equitable water situation in society. Ahmad is the Head of the Water Department in the village of Qabatya, and he describes the EMPOWERS project as “a unique activity, so at first the community had difficulty understanding what it meant for their lives.” Now, according to Ahmad, “the people understand this is a project that provides training, how to plan and work as a group, and how to develop a vision.” Ahmad appreciates the fact that with the EMPOWERS project, the local community, and women in particular, are coming to the Municipality to talk about problems they are facing in the water sector. Ahmad likes the EMPOWERS project because it provides training on how to manage water sources in Qabatya, and it proposes methods so the local community can participate in the management of the water sector. Together, the people in Qabatya and the Water Department developed a plan for the water sector. The specific aim by 2010 is to raise individual share of water from 80 liters to 120 liters per day. The plan was drawn based on the training offered under the EMPOWERS project, so the Municipality dug two new wells, is taking steps to decrease the amount of water lost to leakage, has changed 320 water meters in family homes, workshops were conducted for women to rationalize the use of water for domestic purposes, and new technology is introduced to recycle and utilize grey water. Plans are also underway to replace water meters for the irrigation of farmlands, and agricultural pools will be built to harvest water from rooftops. The entire community is joining together as part of an ambitious endeavor to improve living conditions, and all the stakeholders are having a say in it. For the first time in Qabatya, women are mobilized in the management of water projects. Fatmeh is working for the Ministry of Local Government. She attended training with EMPOWERS, and she conveyed the new image of change to other women in her community. Fatmeh attended training in planning skills, the various stages how to draw a problem tree and to propose solutions, and to come up with recommendations, scenarios, and solutions for water shortages, and to solve the problem of polluted water that affects her living conditions at home. Fatmeh describes the EMPOWERS project as evidence based in the way it proposes practical solutions, and that it offers new skills to the entire community. Fatmeh is member in the Women’s Charitable Society in Qabatya. The women decided to establish the Society after they attended training with the EMPOWERS project, in order to involve women in the water sector and to break the barrier between women and the rest of society, especially with the Municipality. Now the Society has 70 members. According to Fatmeh “At first I was hesitant to participate, because this is the first such organization in our community, and women never participated in things like that. I changed my mind and I participated, because I want to see a role for women in Qabatya. Now women are participating and taking an active role in decision making.” Together, Fatmeh and other women in the Society conducted a study on water access in the mountain area in Qabatya, and they documented water shortages in certain neighborhoods, and pollution in neighborhoods that were receiving water. The women took an unprecedented step and they went to the Municipality to negotiate. Until that moment, the Municipality was off limits to women. Municipality employees described the visit by the women “as an unusual scene.” At first the municipality staff did not believe the women and asserted that water in the mountain neighborhood was clean. The women provided data. Basically a woman had brought with her a bottle of water from the mountain neighborhood and she hid it under her chair. When she was told that water in the mountain neighborhood was clean, she revealed the bottle with dirty water and she showed it to Municipality staff. Now efforts are underway by the Municipality to ensure that the neighborhood will receive clean water. Public health issues among women are central in the training offered by EMPOWERS. Qabatya has a clinic where women are receiving guidance in primary public health and maternal-child health. EMPOWERS project is working with the clinic’s Safe Mother Committee. Together, the clinic and EMPOWERS project held training for women in water cleanliness, home cleanliness, and reproductive health. Forty women attended, and they were mostly farmers attending such training for the first time. Real success of the EMPOWERS project rests in the way in which the people of Qabatya have engaged with the management of their water. Now the local community is beginning to grasp the potential of the skills they have learned, and they are realizing that through concerted community action they can make a direct impact on their own environment. For More Information Please Contact Sameera Rifai, EMPOWRS Country Coordinator  Siham, 13, her family has no running water. She lives in the mountain neighborhood of Qabatya. Siham has to go fetch water from the neighbors. |