March brings two significant commemorative dates: International Women's Day on the 8th and World Water Day on the 22nd. Both represent major social challenges within the broader context of guaranteeing rights.
At Plurales, our mission is to develop strategies to address issues that specifically affect rural, campesina, and Indigenous women, one of which is access to water.
There can be no livable land without water, and it is women—through their ability to sustain life within communities—who play a central role in the fight for water as a right.
By working in communities, we have developed solutions that ensure access to water. Over the past ten years, building rainwater harvesting cisterns has allowed us to explore the potential of this technology, plan its best implementation strategies, and extend its benefits to as many people as possible. Women are our main partners in designing and implementing these strategies. By working with them, we not only address water access issues but also strengthen women’s organisations, build networks, and amplify their voices—both within their communities and beyond.
Building rainwater harvesting cisterns in Argentina. From training and capacity-building in construction to the implementation stage, each cistern initiated a fully community-driven production process.
We have woven together networks of organisations and women who understand and articulate the rights underpinning this issue—both the significance of water and how to address unequal access to it holistically. These discussions have brought forward other critical issues, including food security, the climate crisis, the role of women in communities, and the patriarchal and oppressive structures that persist in everyday practices, even in addressing social issues.
We have learned that it is both essential and challenging to manage water access in a way that not only guarantees this fundamental right but also exposes the structures of oppression that shape it.
Discussions around patriarchy, women’s roles, and the climate crisis must take place within the broader context of capitalism’s destructive impact—intensified by extractivism, environmental destruction, and the commodification of natural resources, with water being a striking example. We must also confront projects that threaten water basins, pollution, and the management of Indigenous territories.
The cisterns have an impact on the daily lives of women, but they also represent a community achievement and a step towards land access for those involved in the process.
Although these issues may seem fragmented and distinct, they are all part of a broader political construction of the world. We engage with them by asking questions, gaining knowledge, sharing perspectives, and proposing collective management actions—alongside women in communities, governments willing to listen, global solidarity movements, young people, and all those who engage in dissent with respect.
Do not be discouraged by the scale of the challenge. Rather than focusing on how far we can reach, we should focus on connecting the dots and strengthening alliances. Without these discussions, real and full access to water cannot be guaranteed. Because without these discussions, we cannot build a political horizon where climate justice and gender justice become a reality.
👉🏾 Follow Fondo Socioambiental Plurales and Plataforma Mujer Rural y Derecho a la Tierra to find out how they are contributing to secure women's access to water in Argentina and the Latin America region.