| Summary: | Although an extensive literature focuses on gender and water, fewer studies focus explicitly on
intrahousehold power dynamics and their consequences. This paper aims to understand the intrahousehold power
dynamics that influence decisions such as who collects water from what source and how water is allocated across
activities. Drawing on the rich intrahousehold literature from economics, we demonstrate how it would strengthen
our understanding of the impacts of water policy and interventions. A review of intrahousehold bargaining models
suggests that it is important to consider how policies and interventions in the water sector may affect the outside
options of household members and thus shape their bargaining power. Social norms, property rights and water
infrastructure all influence household members’ bargaining power and shape the context within which household
decisions are made. Analysing intrahousehold dynamics for water needs to go beyond just considering the dynamic
between the spouses; it also needs to consider others in the household who may provide labour for fetching water
and who require water for their personal care and productive livelihoods.
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