Women’s Perspectives on Corruption and Water Access in Bogotá : A Feminist Qualitative Field Study with an Intersectional Analysis

Abstract: Women are often in charge of the drinking water supply of their family and, in particular women in poverty, areespecially affected when access to water is lacking. Lack of water access is mainly due to governance failures,with corruption as the central problem. Thus, addressing the gender aspects of corruption in the water sector isneeded. This study aims to provide a participatory analysis answering two questions: ‘Which problems do womenin low-income peri-urban areas of Bogotá experience in accessing drinking water and how do they relate theseproblems to corruption?’ And, ‘how can the impacts of lack of access to drinking water, be explained andanalysed in a context of intersectional power structures?’ A feminist qualitative methodological approach was used and implemented by performing focus groupswith women in community-based organisations in Bogotá, where the expertise of the women was thefundamental guiding concept. Results indicate that corruption is inseparable from lack to access water, that women in poorneighbourhoods are most affected. The (intersectional) characteristics of the area of residence was indicated asdetermining, why a human geography perspective is useful to analyse impacts of lack of access to water.