ABSTRACT

Environment and Development of 1992, Agenda 21 of 1992 and the Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development of 1992.6 The four principles agreed on in Dublin are:

• fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the environment~

• water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels;

• women playa central part in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water;

• water has an economic value in all its competing uses, and should be recognised as an economic good.