Use of the study

drought or access restrictions reduces household capacity to combine water with other assets in order to produce income Nicol, 2000. Improved access to safe water supply can reduce poverty at household level through saving time and energy. A reliable water supply ensures that poor households have more time to engage in income generating activities, better hygiene and lower health care costs. Fetching even a family‟s basic water requirement can be time- consuming taking 26 of the household‟s time. It is also physically exhausting, a burden that falls disproportionately on women and children white 1972 in DFID 2000, UNDP 2001, WSP 2010. In eastern Uganda research found that women spend an average of 660 hours per year collecting water for their households, which represents two full months of labour WSP, 2010. UNDP estimates that some 40 billion hours a year, are spent collecting water in sub-Saharan Africa UNDP, 2006. Being ill with a water-related disease, or caring for an ill family member, also consumes a lot of time and money for medical attention and medicines. Water-borne epidemic of cholera can cost a country millions in lost agricultural exports and in trying to curb the epidemic as was the case in Zimbabwe in 20082009. Flood and drought are the main causes of poverty and of the displacement and migration of poor populations. Drought alleviation could reduce the annual expenditure of many million women years a unit of measurement based on a standard number of woman-days in a year of work of effort to carry water from distant sources. Improved water management ensures wider environmental sustainability. However, there is evidence that provision of cheaper water does not always result in people adopting the cheaper supply. Inclusive stakeholder analysis is essential as a prerequisite so as to identify the priorities of the poor DFID, 2000. It is therefore access to water that matters. Contribution of water management to poverty reduction is not just achievable: it is affordable.