Abstract:
Gender disparities are of major concern, in water resources management because men and women play different roles
and have different rights on water usage and it is important to take in account the interest of both genders into account.
Njoro Sub-county is currently facing a serious problem of water scarcity as a result of several factors such as poor
management, loss of forest cover, climatic variability, population increase, and limited endowment of the resource.
Water being an economic good and a cost attached to its development, distribution, operation and maintenance there has
been gender disparity in its management. Women are responsible for multiple uses of water resources and principal
decision-makers regarding domestic uses and sharing responsibility with men for productive uses. However men often
control this resource and make major decisions related to location and type of facilities available hence the need to
investigate why women despite their vital stake in water affairs, they are frequently overlooked and under-represented
in water policy decisions and in water projects committees. The argument in this paper is that gender disparities may
have resulted in over exploitation and mismanagement of water resources.
