The gendered analysis of free basic water services in South Africa: An activist's perspective

abstract

This Open Forum is an attempt to illustrate the gender bias in the implementation of the South African Free Basic Water (FBW) policy. More significantly the aim is to illustrate that policies even with the noblest of intentions, if not engendered or sensitised to gender issues will inadvertently fail, and leave women and poor women, in particular, bearing the brunt of its inadequacies. Research done on the gendered impact of FBW at the household level and through the voices of the women interviewed, illustrates the fraught nature of the implementation. The poor implementation of the FBW and its negative impact on poor women at the household level in urban settings was the subject of research conducted through the Municipal Services Project and the Water Research Commission in several municipalities in the Southern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in 2002 and between 2006-2008. Particular attention is given to the relationship between FBW, cost recovery and the use of technologies such as prepaid meters and tricklers in the application of FBW, with the gendered dimension drawn out in each instance.

Keywords:

• Gendered impact of Free Basic Water
• policy implementation
• cost recovery measures
• water devices
• water service delivery