The Role of Women in Successful Watershed Management Projects

Watershed management is not just about soil, water, and land – it is deeply about the people who depend on these resources every day. Among those people, women stand out as primary users and managers of natural resources, yet they are frequently overlooked in planning and decision-making processes. According to the United Nations, women account for roughly 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, and a larger share of women than men work in rain-fed agriculture. Despite this, watershed development projects have historically focused on land ownership – a domain largely controlled by men – leaving women at the margins. Understanding and addressing this gap is essential for making watershed projects truly effective and sustainable.

Why women matter in watershed management 🔗

Women interact with watershed resources in ways that are different from, and often more intensive than, men. They collect water for drinking and domestic use, gather fuelwood, tend livestock, manage kitchen gardens, and handle post-harvest processing. In many rural households, women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection, often walking long distances daily. This means that any change in water availability – whether improvement or decline – directly affects women’s daily workload and well-being.

Beyond household tasks, women hold deep knowledge about local ecosystems. They understand seasonal water availability, soil conditions, fodder quality, and seed varieties because they work with these resources year-round. When watershed projects tap into this knowledge during planning and implementation, the results are more practical and locally relevant. Research has consistently shown that without women’s central role in the decision-making process, the long-term sustainability of watershed development efforts is threatened.

Barriers women face in watershed projects 🔗

Despite their crucial role, women face several structural barriers that limit their participation in watershed management.

Land ownership and membership criteria 🔗

Watershed committees and water user associations typically require land ownership as a condition for membership. Since land titles are overwhelmingly held by men in most developing countries, women are automatically excluded from these decision-making bodies. Even women-headed households – created through widowhood, migration, or desertion – are often left out because they lack formal land rights. FAO has noted that institutions responsible for water management frequently marginalize or exclude women, despite policy frameworks calling for gender inclusion.

Limited access to training and extension services 🔗

Agricultural extension and technical training programs have traditionally been designed for male farmers. Globally, only a small fraction of extension services reach women. When watershed projects introduce new soil conservation techniques, improved crop varieties, or water-harvesting technologies, the training is usually delivered to men. Women miss out – not because they lack interest or ability, but because the delivery systems are not designed to include them. Timing of training sessions, location, language, and cultural norms all play a role in keeping women away.

Socio-cultural norms and time constraints 🔗

In many communities, women are discouraged from speaking in public meetings dominated by men. Even when they attend watershed committee meetings, their participation may be limited to silent attendance rather than active decision-making. Additionally, women’s existing workload – managing the household, caring for children, farming, and collecting water and fuelwood – leaves them with little free time for community meetings or project activities. An FAO review on gender in watershed management highlights that women participating in committees often merely attend rather than bargain for decision-making power.

How women contribute to watershed success 🔗

Where projects have intentionally involved women, the outcomes have been significantly better. Women’s contributions to watershed management span natural resource conservation, agriculture, livelihood diversification, and community health.

Water and soil conservation 🔗

Women are often the first to notice changes in water quality, soil erosion patterns, and the health of vegetation around water sources. In participatory watershed projects, women have actively contributed to constructing check dams, farm ponds, percolation tanks, and contour bunding. Their involvement ensures that structures are placed where they are most needed – often near domestic water sources or in fields that women cultivate. The UN has recognized that women play a key role in water and land conservation, rainwater harvesting, and watershed management activities.

Agriculture and food security 🔗

Women are responsible for a large portion of food production, especially subsistence crops and kitchen gardens. When watershed interventions improve water availability, women can diversify their cropping patterns, grow vegetables year-round, and improve family nutrition. At ICRISAT-led watershed sites in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, hundreds of women took up kitchen gardening and income-generation activities through self-help groups (SHGs), purchasing livestock and earning additional annual income.

Livelihood diversification through self-help groups 🔗

Self-help groups have emerged as one of the most effective mechanisms for involving women in watershed development. Through SHGs, women pool small savings, access micro-credit, and invest in livelihood activities such as goat rearing, poultry farming, vermicomposting, tailoring, and small enterprises. In the Kumbharwadi watershed of Maharashtra, a World Resources Institute study documented the creation of 11 women-led self-help groups managing micro-credit loans as one of the key co-benefits of the watershed project.

In Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, the POWERGRID-ICRISAT watershed project helped over 500 women build sustainable livelihoods through tailoring, computer skills, and small enterprises – even as the region faced perennial drought. A master tailor trained over 430 women, and a computer training program made more than 25 young women digitally literate, opening pathways to employment and entrepreneurship.

Health and social empowerment 🔗

Watershed management has broader effects on women’s health and social status. A qualitative study published in BMC International Health and Human Rights found that in tribal areas of Maharashtra, watershed management reduced women’s daily workload by 1-2 hours for fetching drinking water. This freed time was used for other productive activities. Women in the study also reported that the formation of self-help groups gave them a sense of empowerment and helped address social issues like alcoholism in their communities. Improved water availability also contributed to better sanitation and reduced incidence of waterborne diseases.

Strategies to empower women in watershed management 🔗

Making watershed projects gender-inclusive requires deliberate strategies at every stage – from planning to implementation to monitoring.

Ensure representation in watershed committees 🔗

India’s Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) guidelines mandate that watershed committees must include at least 50% representation from SHGs, user groups, women, SC/ST communities, and landless persons. This is a step in the right direction, but representation must go beyond numbers. Women members need to be empowered to speak, raise concerns, and influence decisions. Training in leadership, communication, and negotiation can help build this capacity.

Design gender-sensitive training programs 🔗

Training schedules, locations, and methods should be designed keeping women’s constraints in mind. Sessions held at convenient times in the village, using local language and practical demonstrations, are more likely to attract women participants. Topics should cover not only soil and water conservation but also livelihood skills, financial literacy, health, and nutrition. The UNDP Resource Guide on mainstreaming gender in water management emphasizes improving sustainability of water activities through incorporation of gender equality at every stage.

Strengthen self-help groups as vehicles for participation 🔗

SHGs serve a dual purpose in watershed management: they provide women with financial resources and collective bargaining power, and they create an organized platform through which women can participate in project activities. Linking SHGs to watershed committees, government schemes, and market opportunities multiplies their impact. In many successful watershed projects, SHGs have been the primary channel through which women accessed training, credit, and new technologies.

Collect gender-disaggregated data 🔗

Effective gender mainstreaming requires data. Project agencies should track participation rates, income changes, workload reduction, and health outcomes separately for men and women. This helps identify what is working, what gaps remain, and where additional support is needed. A 2025 UN Women policy brief highlighted that the absence of sex-disaggregated data remains one of the biggest obstacles to effective gender mainstreaming in water resources management globally.

Address underlying gender norms 🔗

Technical interventions alone will not bridge the gender gap. Awareness campaigns, gender sensitisation workshops for both men and women, and engagement with community leaders are needed to shift attitudes about women’s roles in public decision-making. Men must be part of this process – not as obstacles, but as partners in building equitable watershed communities.

Lessons from the field 🔗

Several watershed projects across India offer valuable lessons on how gender-inclusive approaches lead to better outcomes.

The Adarsha Watershed at Kothapally in Andhra Pradesh, managed through an ICRISAT-led consortium, trained women SHGs in vermicomposting, improved agricultural practices, and income-generating activities. Women became active participants in watershed planning meetings and contributed to decisions about resource allocation.

In Rajasthan and Gujarat, watershed projects that involved women in the rehabilitation of community water ponds and other water bodies saw higher rates of maintenance and sustainability. The Bal Rashmi Society in Rajasthan, for example, engaged women in rehabilitating rural ponds that had been neglected for years – an initiative that succeeded in part because women had the strongest motivation to ensure water availability near their homes.

The common guidelines issued by India’s National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA) now explicitly call for enhancing women’s role in decision-making and ensuring their representation in institutional arrangements for watershed projects. This policy shift reflects hard-won lessons about the cost of excluding half the population from resource management.

The bigger picture: gender equality and sustainable development 🔗

The connection between women’s empowerment and sustainable natural resource management is not limited to watershed projects. It is a recurring theme across global development frameworks. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly Goal 5 (gender equality) and Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation) – explicitly call for integrating gender considerations into water governance. Achieving both goals requires that women are not just beneficiaries of watershed projects but active leaders and decision-makers within them.

When women participate meaningfully, the benefits ripple outward: children’s nutrition and school attendance improve, family incomes rise, communities become more resilient to drought and climate variability, and the watershed itself is managed more sustainably. The evidence is clear – watershed management cannot reach its full potential without the full participation of women.

What do you think? In your experience or community, have you seen women take active roles in managing natural resources like water or land? What do you think is the single most effective step that could increase women’s participation in watershed projects?

References

1. https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/women-and-agricultural-water-resource-management
2. https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/water-and-gender
3. https://odi.org/en/publications/issues-in-watershed-development-and-management-in-india-watershed-development-creating-space-for-women/
4. https://www.fao.org/land-water/water/watergovernance/water-gender/en/
5. https://www.fao.org/4/X5269E/X5269e03.htm
6. http://idc.icrisat.org/idc/index.php/harvesting-rains-to-grow-fruit-vegetables-and-improved-crops-at-watershed-learning-sites-in-india/
7. https://www.wri.org/research/watershed-development-india
8. https://www.icrisat.org/how-over-500-women-in-south-india-built-sustainable-livelihoods-in-face-of-drought/
9. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3853343/
10. https://www.undp.org/publications/resource-guide-mainstreaming-gender-water-management
11. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2025/03/policy-brief-mainstreaming-gender-equality-in-water-resources-management
12. https://books.openedition.org/ifp/10085?lang=en