Uzbekistan Country Gender Assessment: Update

Water Supply and Sanitation

Uzbekistan lies in one of Central asia’s driest regions. the water supply and sanitation (WSS) infrastructure inherited from the Soviet period is outdated, resulting in a lack of continuity
in water services and insufficient pressure in the pipelines. access to safe drinking water and sanitation varied significantly between urban and rural areas in 2016 (around 93.2% vs. 75.3%, respectively, for drinking water, and 78.7% vs. 42.1%, respectively, for sanitation). Weaknesses in the water supply system affect both men and women. Women are the primary collectors, users, and managers of domestic water, and are in charge of family hygiene. In the rural areas, women and children must transport drinking water several times a day. On average, water delivery accounts for 22 person-hours per month. Women must boil water to make it safe for drinking. In the cold season, they must heat water for laundry, bathing, and cattle watering.

at the institutional level, women are underrepresented by 5%–10% in WSS staff, both in lower- level positions and at managerial or decision-making levels. Senior and mid-level management staff (economists, engineers, and operators) are mostly male, whereas most women hold junior (and consequently low-paying) technical positions such as power controllers, laboratory assistants, and cleaners).

adB’s WSS projects relate directly to poverty reduction and better health, and are also aimed at decreasing the burden of unpaid work and unproductive labor costs. Rehabilitated and newly constructed water infrastructure save about 30% on water purchases for basic needs. Such projects offer examples of how Gap implementation can contribute to gender equality. For instance, the Surkhandarya Water Supply and Sanitation project benefited about 340,000 people (almost 50% women) in both rural and urban areas. the project had an impressive public outreach component, resulting in improved hygiene and sanitation practices, especially among students in pilot schools.

adB water-related projects also contribute to gender equality by increasing the number of women farmers and women’s share in membership and management of local water consumers associations (WCas). In 2015, the female participation rate in WCas in Water Resource Management project areas increased from 3.5% to 7.6%, and by 50% in management bodies, compared with the 2014 figures. a multi level collaboration scheme established within water projects’ Gaps unites state and non-state local stakeholders and presents a scalable model of national ownership.

the strategy aims to enhance gender mainstreaming in the WSS sector by

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  developing and endorsing the sectoral gender policy of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services (MHCS) as a tool to sustain positive outcomes of WSS projects and mainstreaming gender;
  

xvi Executive Summary

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  including in WSS Gaps a collection of sex-disaggregated baselines for school attendance, household expenditure on treatment and medicines, and the occurrence of the more common diseases in project localities;
  
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  establishing at least intermittently the positions of gender specialists in WSS projects to focus on Gap implementation;
  
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  developing an interagency mechanism to sustain institutional memory; and
  
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  supporting further collaboration between the government, the WCU, other stakeholders, and mass media to ensure broader dissemination of the projects’ knowledge products.