ASSESSING WOMEN INVOLVEMENT IN GROUNDWATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The quest to promote women involvement in groundwater resource management is still facing challenges in Malawi ranging from cultural, religious and gender issues among others as pronounced by the society. It is against this background that the research observed that there is poor involvement of women in groundwater resource management as evidenced by poor representation of women in groundwater resource management committees. Ironically, women are the most group of the society affected by water scarcity as mostly they are the ones involved in identification and determination of water sources as compared to their male counterparts. Thus, the research has observed that civic education and promotion of gender equality be advanced to ensure involvement and integration of women in the groundwater resource management. To arrive at this, the research adopted the mixed approach in which qualitative and qualitative data was captured using direct interviews, guided interviews and Focus group Discussions (FGDs).

The quest to promote women involvement in groundwater resource management is still facing challenges in Malawi ranging from cultural, religious and gender issues among others as pronounced by the society. It is against this background that the research observed that there is poor involvement of women in groundwater resource management as evidenced by poor representation of women in groundwater resource management committees. Ironically, women are the most group of the society affected by water scarcity as mostly they are the ones involved in identification and determination of water sources as compared to their male counterparts. To arrive at this, the research adopted the mixed approach in which qualitative and qualitative data was captured using direct interviews, guided interviews and Focus group Discussions (FGDs).

The study site was kachimanga village located in Ntcheu district of Malawi. Kachimanga village borders Gumbu village, kasale village and kamzingeni village. This area was chosen because it is trapped in water problems as the village is located in rocky and hilly area. As such, there is constant lowering of water table which creates panic to humans and human activities that revolve around water hence the choice of the area to conduct the study with an aim of improving ways of managing and conserving the groundwater sources and cushion existing water problems. Though the Ngoni culture favors females, but the village is male dominated and most of the decisions are made by males as such the issue of gender and ground water resource management has not been pronounced which prompted the researcher to assess women involvement in groundwater resource management.

Traditional authority: TA Kwataine

District: Ntcheu

Coordinates: -14.8247, 34.68765