Since they must depend on small-scale or hand irrigation, they have difficulties coping with drought. Often the technologies that are available to them do not respond to their needs, such as pumps that have handles they cannot reach or manipulate or that they have not been trained to repair. Women's agricultural practices must usually be adapted to soil moisture conditions that depend on the vagaries of the climate and the conditions of their soils. When women's survival strategies lead to erosion, their farming practices can be major sources of watershed instability. Domestic water is used for processing and preparing food, for drinking, bathing and washing, for irrigating home gardens and watering livestock.
Women know the location, reliability and quality of local water resources.
They collect water, store it and control its use and sanitation. They recycle water, using grey water for washing and irrigation and runoff from these for livestock. Women make multiple and maximum use of water sources and attempt to ensure that these sources do not become polluted. Given their many and often competing needs, such as water for livestock and for human consumption, as well as time and resource constraints, women often cannot avoid contaminating water supplies. As water sources become contaminated from humans, animals or agricultural runoff, or as drought increases or water sources deteriorate due to watershed mismanagement, women and children must walk longer distances to secure water.