The Fall of the Water

Infrastructure development and poverty Infrastructure development is directly and indirectly related to living conditions, welfare and other aspects of the human environment.

amples that poverty is especially rampant in mountain regions where we also find the most important water sources to people in this region. The Chinese govern- ment estimates that the bulk of its 80 million inhabit- ants below the poverty line are ethnic mountain minori- ties (Ives 1997). Poverty has a structure that is also related to the use of water resources. Women are generally impoverished in that they have less access to resources than men, less control over their life, less influence over decision mak- ing, but have to carry out the bulk of daily work (UNI- CEF 1994). Furthermore as economic pressures mount, the world debt crisis increases, and the government- subsidized social programmes are reduced, increasing numbers of men migrate from mountain and other rural regions to urban centers. Finally, the vast majority of bilateral and international aid and development agen- cies have historically tended to target men in their proj- ects. All in all, this reinforces a poverty structure where social and economic differences are enhanced, resource use remains unsustainable, and local governance and lo- cal economies are hindered or undermined. Social and cultural conflicts contribute to poverty, social instability and pressure on basic resources like, water and soil. Infrastructure development is a driving factor that can affect poverty negatively and positively. Infrastructure is often argued to be important for poverty reduction. This can be the case where development aid, road construc-

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Poverty in mountain regions is a complex outcome of interacting processes, where rapid population growth, inequitable access to resources, social and political pow- er struggles, ill-directed policies, lack of food production capacity and basic services and social security systems to name some critical factors, combine to create unsustain- able and insufficient living conditions. The widespread lack of access to water of adequate quality is a key com- ponent of the global poverty struggle. A large portion of the population in the Greater Asia mountain region lives in moderate or extreme poverty. All the major problems facing mountain environments and their people’s have traditionally failed to attract spe- cial attention from the international community. Poverty is one of the most pressing issues in these environments which have never had a prominent position in foreign aid and development projects. It is only recently that mountains have been recognized as particularly impor- tant for development, and as especially ecologically and socially vulnerable. Poverty is largely associated with women and children, i.e. marginalized groups in society (UN 1989, 1992). Poverty among the powerless tends to draw limited attention in international policies. There are many ex-