Blog
July 12 2023
By Carly Holencik and Ayesha D'Souza
The early success of the Women and Rivers program now paves the way to amplify more women’s voices, support new initiatives, and forge powerful global connections between the women who are leading the work to protect and restore the world’s rivers.
Three thousand miles apart, Nirmala’s and Violet’s experience led them both to the same calling: to protect the rivers in their communities.
March 8 2023
By Carly Holencik and Isadora Armani
In recognition of the critical role women play in shaping water solutions and the support needed to grow their impact, International Rivers partnered with Women’s Earth Alliance and launched the first Women and Rivers Accelerator Program in 2022 to strengthen the global movement of women river defenders.
The first accelerator brought together 23 women river protectors, representing 10 nations protecting more than 50 rivers around the world. The group created a transformative partnership to empower women’s leadership.
March 6 2023
By Carly Holencik and Isadora Armani
Join International Rivers in celebrating #WomensHistoryMonth and #InternationalWomensDay this week.
Women play critical leadership roles in providing, managing and safeguarding water and other natural resources.
Yet too often, governments ignore women’s lives and perspectives when making decisions about water.
March 8 2022
By Carly Holencik and Isadora Armani
Hydropower dam projects often exacerbate existing power imbalances between women and men. In many cases, women suffer the negative impacts of dam development disproportionately, facing gender-based violence, insufficient compensation, lost livelihoods, and a lack of access to information, decision-makers and justice systems.
These women river defenders are resolving this disconnect for the planet, their communities and future generations.
January 28 2022
By Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma
Connecting to riverine communities gave direction to her career
Globally, young activists have increasingly taken a stand calling for social change. Zerin Ahmed is one of those inspiring young leaders. The 25-year-old activist and educator is based in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where she promotes environmental education and human rights in light of the sustainable development goals.
Zerin has been volunteering since she was a teenager, but when she attended a river camp organized by the Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) project in 2019, it opened her eyes to the real impact of large hydropower development, and the suffering it is causing vulnerable riverine communities and the importance of free-flowing rivers in South Asia. Since then, Zerin has focused her work to follow the rivers, organizing and facilitating skills-based training for youth, advocating environmental protection and human rights and empowerment.
January 26 2022
By Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma
She found her roots by the river
“I have been on a rollercoaster journey of discovery about my land and identity,” Rummit Lepcha says of her mission to reconnect with her roots and help save her home. Rummit is a member of the Lepcha community, and lives in her childhood village of Lingthem in Dzongu, in India’s North Sikkim. Her home rests on the flanks of the Himalayas, along the Rongyoung River.
The Lepchas are Sikkim’s first inhabitants, and Dzongu is considered the cradle of their civilization. Their culture, customs and traditions are bound to their deep bond with nature. “Every part of the earth is not just a resource for us to survive with, but has its own soul and ways to express itself,” Rummit explains. “The river roars in laughter as she flows, taking shape in beautiful waves; the trees glisten as the sun’s rays grab them, and the wind slowly whispers.”
January 25 2022
By Petro Kotze and Nalori Chakma
Once an ‘unseen’ person, she now helps ensure her community does not disappear
Mueda Nawanat is from the Ban Tha Rua village in Thailand’s Sob Moei District in the Mae Hong Son Province close to the border with Myanmar.
Surrounded by forests, the village of Ban Tha Rua rests on the banks of the Yuam River, a tributary of the Salween. Villagers live in close harmony with both the forests and river. Here, boats are their only method of transport. The village has no school or hospital, so they use the river to travel there; neither do they have electricity, so the river is their connection to the outside world. “My people have little money”, Mueda says, “but they live off fish, the forest, and from their small farming plots. They believe they must protect what they use”, she says. “No forest, no water.” Ceremonies to bless the spirits of the water and forest and, thank them for their protection are part of their everyday lives.
January 24 2022
By Petro Kotze
She fights for the survival of the only place she belongs
Rivers are an integral part of the Sikkimese character. Some people already consider the Lepchas to be a vanishing tribe, says Marmit Lepcha, a Lepcha from Dzongu, in India’s North Sikkim region but, “this is where I belong.” I only understood this once I was away from my home, the Gnon Sangdon Village next to the Teesta River for a long time, she says.
September 22 2020
By Melanie Scaife
Patriarchal norms dominate the Mekong countries, where women tend to be excluded from decision-making roles in river governance. Nevertheless, women are exercising influence, exerting power, and leading in highly effective ways.
Sor.Rattanamanee Polkla is one such woman. A dedicated public interest lawyer and co-founder of Thailand’s Community Resource Centre, Sor has worked on numerous high-profile legal cases over the past 20 years, many seeking to challenge controversial dam projects planned for the Mekong region.
August 12 2020
By Melanie Scaife
Throughout the Mekong region, women are taking on influential roles in governing the rivers and water resources on which they and their communities depend. Their rise to leadership is all the more impressive when you consider the many barriers they must overcome to have their voices heard -- and wouldn't be possible without the mutual support and strength they offer one another. Here, International Rivers’ Phairin Sohsai explores finding agency and access through her own experiences as a leader working to empower women leaders in river communities to achieve meaningful change.
June 30 2020
By Melanie Scaife
While indigenous and local communities defending their rivers and lands often face violent repression and criminalization for their work, women who are leading these fights are met with an additional set of challenges to overcome. These challenges pervade personal, social, and political spaces. The State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region report seeks to identify these challenges, and lays out a "recipe" for successful women's leadership that addresses them. As an example of how this recipe comes to life, one woman leader in the Mekong Region, Nang Shining, tells us the story of her work to empower the youth of her community to participate in the management of their traditional natural resources.
June 18 2020
By Karen Delfau and Pichamon Yeophantong
Authors of the State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region report, Dr. Delfau and Dr. Yeophantong share their reflections on the key messages and personal meaning they found in their process of interviewing women river managers and leaders in the Mekong region.
June 17 2019
By Pai Deetes
Stories shared from the inagural Women and Rivers Congress serve as a guide for taking forward women's-led campaigns with courage and collective power.
March 7 2019
By Maureen Harris
"One woman can influence policy," says Wang Yongchen, a river defender and participant of the Women and Rivers Congress. Read more to find out how. This article originally appeared in Asia Times.
September 22 2020
By Melanie Scaife
Patriarchal norms dominate the Mekong countries, where women tend to be excluded from decision-making roles in river governance. Nevertheless, women are exercising influence, exerting power, and leading in highly effective ways.
Sor.Rattanamanee Polkla is one such woman. A dedicated public interest lawyer and co-founder of Thailand’s Community Resource Centre, Sor has worked on numerous high-profile legal cases over the past 20 years, many seeking to challenge controversial dam projects planned for the Mekong region.