Women--the underused human resource: education and training of women for community participation.

This article goes beyond the rhetorical issue of women's participation as a key to implementing water supply and sanitation projects and suggests concrete ways in which training and education can make these plans a reality. With the improvements proposed for the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, women could be freed to do other tasks vital to the well being of the family and the community. Women, the "invisible resource" of society, play and essential part in encouraging family members to use technological advances and should be trained to effectively promote their acceptance. The author highlights the influence women have in the field of public health: with adequate training, for example, they can help control the spread of diarrheal disease with proper hygiene and an understanding of the fecal-oral route of infection. Moreover, she says that the central role women play in socializing the young and their permanence within the household make them suitable as trainees and trainers for water and sanitation projects at the community and household levels. Women should be recruited for these roles and should be consulted at every stage of development; while women's bureaus exist in many countries, the author states that planners often hesitate to call on them for assistance. The article describes several innovative training programs and, along with a bibliography, presents separate case studies for Mexico and Panama.