If her feet were to slip, she would tumble to her death. She has to do this several times a day. She lives in Kwale district on Kenya' s coast, but hers is the experience of rural women throughout the developing world. Its origins go back to the United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975, which set up a voluntary fund for women's projects, and it has always focused on small community-based water projects where women take part in planning and implementing them. Experience shows that when the potential beneficiaries are not themselves involved in running and maintaining a water-supply scheme, it is likely to end in failure.
Rainfall there is moderate but seasonal, and the streams are dry most of the year.
There is ample groundwater, but many traditional wells are not deep enough to provide it all year round, and women often have to walk far to dig for water with their hands in beds of dry streams. Village teams, particularly women, were trained in constructing and maintaining water pumps and these are now a common sight in the area. The villagers have elected committees to manage all water-related affairs and the women take turns to sweep around each hand pump and keep the environment clean. As a single pump serves an average of 250 people and lasts about 10 years, each family may pay 6 US cents per week. Since the hand pumps were installed, women have found the burden of fetching water less irksome.