News and Features

PRESS RELEASE | Historic Asia Women and Rivers Congress Unites Over 125 Women Leaders Calling for Equity and Justice

June 10, 2024

Over 125 women leaders and partners from 18 countries convened in Chiang Rai, Thailand, for the Asia Women and Rivers Congress, a momentous event that marked a crucial milestone in the ongoing mission for gender equity in water resource management and climate resilience.

Protect Rivers, Support Women: Unleashing the Success of the Women and Rivers Accelerator

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.

Hear from participants of International Rivers’ Women and Rivers Leadership Accelerator Program

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.

These women are using their voices and leadership to help save the planet

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.

Honoring Women River Defenders

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.

Women and Rivers’ Defender Spotlight: Zerin Ahmed

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.

Women and Rivers’ Defender Spotlight: Rummit Lepcha

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.”

Women and Rivers’ Defender Spotlight: Mueda Nanawat

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. 

Women and Rivers’ Defender Spotlight: Marmit Lepcha

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. 

Storytelling, Connecting, and Supporting Women for River and Water Governance: An Invitation to Co-design

April 2021

As with so many other global events in 2020, last year’s Women and Rivers Congress was held online. For the 181 participants, this was a great opportunity to start to meet and connect with the many activists, researchers, journalists, artists, and organisations working to support women’s voices in river management and governance.

Over the next few months, we invite you to be a part of the co-design process and share your ideas with us! We want to know how you currently use technology to connect and share stories and knowledge, and how an online platform, application, or other tech solution could help you add your voice and hear from others working on issues that you care about. 

Webinar: Cross-Regional Gender Guide

November 16, 2020

This cross regional webinar introduced some of the dedicated people behind the creation of Transforming Power, a gender guide for organisations campaigning on dams and for rivers, and its testing in the communities of Inga in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The webinar explored the potential use of the guide across regions for organizations looking to strengthen their gender practices and empower the voices of women river defenders.

Virtual Workshop 3: How can we support Women’s Leadership in a time of COVID 19 response and recovery?

September 25, 2020

The 2020 Asia Women and Rivers Congress is holding a series of women-focused workshops on zoom between July to September to build on and further develop the Congress spirit of sharing experiences and networking.

Following the highly successful previous two workshops where we heard and discussed the findings from the study State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region (including the Salween basin) and discussed practical ways to nurture and encourage women’s leadership (workshop 2 summary), the third workshop explored practical ways to meet the challenges and support women leaders during COVID 19 response and recovery.  Building on the ‘’recipe for women’s leadership’’ (listed below) participants shared their experiences through stories and identified joint actions to support women’s leadership during unprecedented times.  

Defending the public interest: Sor.Rattanamanee Polkla

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.

Virtual Workshop 2: Building on shared experience to nurture women's leadership

August 14, 2020

The 2020 Asia Women and Rivers Congress is holding a series of women-focused workshops on zoom between July to September to build on and further develop the Congress spirit of sharing experiences and networking.   

Following the highly successful first webinar where we heard and discussed the findings from the study State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region (including the Salween basin), the second workshop built on the ‘’recipe for women’s leadership’’ and drew on participants’ personal experience to share practical ways to nurture and encourage women’s leadership.  

Speaking Up Together: One woman's voice used to strengthen another's for the protection of the Mekong River

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.

Virtual Workshop 1: Knowledge as the Basis of Change

July 3, 2020

This workshop was the first in a three-part series for the virtual Asia Women and Rivers Congress. Presenters gave an introduction and overview to the concepts of women's leadership in river governance, as laid out in the released report, State of Knowledge: Women and Rivers in the Mekong Region. 

The State of Knowledge study was recommended by Congress participants in 2019. It recognizes and values women’s knowledge of their rivers and resources, and explores how to bridge the divide between academic, economic and science-based knowledge and that of local riverine communities. 

The Recipe for Women's Leadership: Nang Shining and the Mong Pan Youth Association

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. 

Why women’s leadership matters to river governance in the Mekong Region—especially after COVID-19

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.

Women’s Voices Reign at First-Ever Women & Rivers Congress

June 17, 2019

By Pai Deetes

Stories shared from the inaugural Women and Rivers Congress serve as a guide for taking forward women's-led campaigns with courage and collective power.

Women's rights and river protection | Asia Times

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.