Providing water and empowering women in the West Bank

30 April 2009

Oxfam's Sarah-Eve Hammond reports on Oxfam's water and sanitation work in the West Bank.

Oxfam's water work has a direct impact on people we help. Latrines and water tanks are built, sewage networks are rehabilitated and hygiene promotion sessions explaining the why and how of basic hygiene practices are held. This is what we do. It is straightforward and it changes people's lives.

My visit to Qarawat Beni Hassan, north of Nablus, in the West Bank, was aimed at discussing just that. Oxfam and the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid wanted to know how their recent work in the village - the construction of a new 500 cubic metre water tank - had made a positive impact on the community.

We sat with Um Oday who is in her late 30s and full of energy. She explained to us how the village had learned about hygiene practices as a result of the project and how people, especially women, were mobilising themselves to clean roof water tanks. The village had previously been dependent on an Israeli water supplier, to the new water tank providing a regular supply of water has made a huge difference to the village. She explained how farmers will be able to irrigate their lands even during the summer and how families will always have enough water in their homes.

Um Oday had no idea she also was about to give us a great example of women's empowerment.

In the conservative village of Qarawat Beni Hassan, Um Oday is Oxfam's first port of call for organising hygiene promotion activities with local community mobilisers. The group meets to attend training sessions and to plan future activities. They also meet to talk about their lives.

"You can't imagine how women feel during the meetings", says Um Oday. "At first they were talking about anything and everything because they have been isolated for so long. These meetings on hygiene promotion activities are actually the only opportunity women have to talk about what they go through on a daily basis. It's a big change in itself to gather so many women. They accept to leave their houses despite the conservatism in the village that says that women are to stay at home and have children.

"I think the women slowly feel more empowered but this all takes time. Oxfam and ECHO are the first here to work with us women. We are an important part of the project because we do the hygiene promotion in the village.

"We now understand that in the past we did not have the right hygiene practices at home. One example is that we did not clean our rooftop water tanks, which contributed to contamination and made our kids sick. Nobody had ever told us that it needed to be done!

"This project challenged the village in a positive way. Oxfam helped the municipality to understand that women had to be part of the hygiene promotion. In fact it was one of the conditions for building the water reservoir. The women here need this support. I am thankful for this project, not only because the 6,000 people in Qarawat will be able to get clean water more regularly, but also because this emergency intervention has given me the strength and confidence to go to meetings at the municipality. I now mix with men and they have to listen to me when I speak. I feel a little bit more like a leader.

"Us women missed out on so many opportunities in the past because we were unable to have our voices heard.

"There are many things I want to achieve and I want to become a decision maker. I also want to take part in the next municipal elections and if I manage this I will devote my time to organising activities for women."