A years-long collaboration that’s been working away in Cambodia’s vital Stung Chinit Watershed has found that solutions to water inequality lie at the crossroads of infrastructure and gender. Project principals Laura Forni of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Paula Uniacke of The Asia Foundation hold down the discussion of a powerful new analytic approach in this week’s podcast.
A years-long collaboration that’s been working away in Cambodia’s vital Stung Chinit Watershed has found that solutions to water inequality lie at the crossroads of infrastructure and gender. Project principals Laura Forni of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Paula Uniacke of The Asia Foundation hold down the discussion of a powerful new analytic approach in this week’s podcast.
Laura Forni (00:02):
We tested a game with our colleagues here. Engineers, PhDs in our water program and they all failed terribly.
John Rieger (00:11):
Our project to improve irrigation in one of Cambodia's most important watersheds finds that social structures are as important as infrastructure, today on InAsia, from the Asia Foundation. I'm John Rieger.
Tracie Yang (00:26):
And I'm Tracie yang in a multiyear collaboration in Cambodia's vital Stung Chinit Watershed, researchers from the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Asia Foundation, and Winrock International have found that solutions to water inequality often lie at the crossroads of infrastructure and gender.
John Rieger (00:44):
Joining us now to talk about some of their findings are Laura Forney, senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, and Paula Uniacke of the Asia Foundation's Women's Empowerment Program, Laura and Paula. Welcome to InAsia.
Laura Forni (00:57):
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Tracie Yang (00:58):
So this is a study of water resources and who has access. And today we're talking particularly about irrigation water. Laura, how important is irrigation in the Stung Chinit Watershed?
Laura Forni (01:12):
About 90% of the crop land in the Stung Chinit is dedicated to rice. And it's key for the subsistence of the people, but also for the economy, the climate is seasonal, so they have a wet season and a dry season. And during the wet season, everybody can produce rice, but in the dry season, irrigation is needed. They have two big reservoirs and then many multiple smaller reservoirs and ponds and primary and secondary and tertiary canals and managing those canals are key for ensuring that people can produce rice in the dry season and there is expansion and production of rice.
Paula Uniacke (01:53):
And just to add.
Laura Forni (01:54):
Yes, Paula.
Paula Uniacke (01:55):
Expanding the capacity for people to produce rice, not just in the wet season, that has a huge economic impact as well as a community impact. Because whereas before during dry seasons, it was very common for family members to leave their families and go and find seasonal factory work with the expansion of irrigation that allows more year-round rice production that really allows... It gives more economic options to families and helps communities stay in one place longer.
John Rieger (02:26):
So this study began several years ago with a straightforward technical analysis of water availability by the sustainable water partnership, how much water was there and who was, or was not getting it. But then in a social survey and a series of workshops with the farmers themselves, you were able to document a connection between water and gender.
John Rieger (02:47):
Paula, please explain.
Paula Uniacke (02:48):
Well, there are certainly technical elements that can be tweaked to increase access to water overall, are the gates on the irrigation canals open to allow greater water flow. Is there additional infrastructure that can be put in to increase access to farmers who may not have land close to the irrigation canals, but where we look not just at infrastructure, but also at gender and poverty and measures of social equity. This sort of purely technical analysis doesn't necessarily capture everything that's going on when we think about access to water.
John Rieger (03:24):
Do you have some numbers you can share?
Paula Uniacke (03:27):
In our survey, among those who had problems or challenges, obtaining irrigation water, these were 73% of women-headed households as compared to 59% of male-headed households. Women, as our study found have much less access to information about the irrigation schedules and about irrigation fees. And women are much less represented at the Farmer Water User Committees, and therefore have less influence in decision making. And this is a problem because when women and men are equally involved, decisions are more likely to reflect the needs and concerns of the whole community.
John Rieger (04:06):
It sounds like you're suggesting that women's water needs differ for men's. Why would that be? Why would women have different needs for water than men?
Paula Uniacke (04:15):
Traditionally, men are primarily responsible for commercial agriculture, such as rice production and women are often responsible for domestic food production, subsistence farming for the families produce needs. And it can also include water used for cooking, for bathing, for cleaning, that sort of domestic use.
Paula Uniacke (04:37):
When there is the pressure or the need to go and fetch water to provide for your family and for yourself and for the house. That takes time from other activities. So in addition to not having a voice spending time collecting water, prevents women from engaging in other activities, right? Going to meetings around irrigation scheduling.
Tracie Yang (05:02):
So when we put our gender glasses on, irrigation in Stung Chinit suddenly looks like a difficult social problem. Our traditional gender roles in Cambodia actually incompatible within equitable irrigation system.
Paula Uniacke (05:17):
It is hard to overstate just how important the gender norms around decision-making and around community influence are. In our study, we found that participation in decision-making is low for both men and women throughout the watershed, but we also found that women's representation is lower and that men feel more represented than women at the Farmer Water User Committee Meetings. And that women speak up less and feel less heard at these meetings as well. And in fact out of, I think, 12 Farmer Water User Committees that we looked at only one was headed by a woman.
John Rieger (05:58):
Laura.
Laura Forni (05:58):
The prior analysis, the sustainable water partnership analysis. It was fairly technical and it was based on the data that was available, right? So it was kind of assumed because of the data that was available, that all the irrigation groups receive the same amount of water, or it was equitable. This collaboration allow us to merge more social science-based type of analysis with technical analysis. And we discovered the added value of doing that. That the social component was able to capture some of the inequalities in the systems that we've would otherwise missed.
John Rieger (06:38):
Here's a different kind of question. The winter holidays are coming up. You'll probably see friends and family. Are you ready with some amusing anecdotes about your work to share with them?
Laura Forni (06:48):
What it was interesting is that when we did the workshop, not many people kind of understood how big the watershed is, right? And we did a board game.
John Rieger (07:00):
You made a board game? What's it called?
Laura Forni (07:02):
Well, we designed it ourselves. So we don't have a name but what it was funny about that is that-
Tracie Yang (07:08):
Water monopoly.
Laura Forni (07:09):
Yeah. My colleague decided, and before we went to Cambodia, we tested the game with our colleagues here... Engineers, PhDs in our water program, and they all failed terribly.
Paula Uniacke (07:24):
Can we ask what the game was?
Laura Forni (07:27):
Well, the game, she designed these cards and for each month they would get an amount of water in precipitation. And they had to make decisions around how many hectares of rice they would produce? How much water they want to leave in the reservoir and leave in the river for the fish? And they would either not have enough water when it gets to the dry season for rice or the fish would die because the fish needed like three chips and the rice needed five chips. So it was very funny that they couldn't really keep the fish alive or the rice. And when we did the game in the workshop, they did great because they knew, right? They knew exactly how the climate was going to be and how to keep the water. So the objective of the game was to kind of share with them how the model works? How much water goes to rise? How much water stays in the river in that particular month? And then we said, this is what the model is doing.
John Rieger (08:21):
So it sounds like this was kind of a co-learning process between your technical team and the farmers who know how to farm.
Laura Forni (08:29):
Definitely because yes, we know the models, but they know the reality, they know their problems.
Tracie Yang (08:36):
So then what's next for the Stung Chitin Watershed.
Paula Uniacke (08:40):
Well, based on the evidence and recommendations of the study, the Asia Foundation is piloting an initiative in the watershed. We're going to be working very closely with the Farmer Water User Committees to encourage more participatory decision-making. And there's also going to be a big focus on helping farmers and the water user committees to adapt to extreme weather events.
John Rieger (09:03):
The Asia Foundation's Paula Uniacke and Laura Forni at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Thank you for talking to us today.
Laura Forni (09:09):
Thank you for having us.
Paula Uniacke (09:10):
Thank you for having us.
John Rieger (09:11):
I hope we can have you back in a couple of years when the next step has reached maturity.
Tracie Yang (09:15):
Yeah. When you launch your board game.
Laura Forni (09:19):
There's a blog post about the game I can share with you. But-
Paula Uniacke (09:22):
Oh, you definitely have to share it.
Tracie Yang (09:24):
That's our show for this week. And yes, we will share that blog post about the board game. There's a link at the end of this week's essay about the Stung Chitin Project by our colleague [Chap Stripia 00:09:35]. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast until next time. I'm Tracie Yang and I'm John Rieger. Thanks for listening.