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Gender Equality and Environmental Sustainability in Uganda’s Water Sector

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GENDER EQUALITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN UGANDA’S WATER SECTOR.
By Nandala Mike(mnandala@yahoo.com)

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Essence of Gender, Gender Equality and the Environment
Gender refers to the different roles, rights and responsibilities of men and women and the relationships between them, their qualities, behaviours, and identities which are determined through the process of socialisation to define their relationships with each other and with their environment. Gender equality on the other hand is a principle that equates men and women before and under the law; men and women have equal dignity (worthiness); and have equal opportunities in economic, political, cultural and social life. It is upon this background that …show more content…

At the domestic level, the objective is to provide sustainable safe water and hygienic sanitation facilities, within easy reach, based on management responsibility and ownership by users, to 77% of the population in rural areas and 100% in urban areas by year 2015. Concerning water for production, the aim is to promote development of water supply for agricultural production in order to modernise agriculture and mitigate effects of climatic variations on rain fed agriculture (MWLE, 1999). In essence, the overall policy objective is to manage and develop the water resources of Uganda in an integrated and sustainable manner, so as to secure and provide adequate quantity and quality of water for all social and economic needs of the present and future generations. The Government aims at full participation of all stakeholders with an 80-90% target for effective use and functionality of facilities.
Other policy measures have also been put in place by the Environment and Natural Resources Sector Working Group which commissioned a study on the use of economic instruments for environmental management. Curbing water pollution was a key implementation factor for environmental sustainability. In 1998, the government introduced a water waste discharge fee ranging from 0 to 13 million Ugandan shillings

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