This Special Issue is a response to a growing concern for the unequal access men and women have to water in an increasingly fragile physical environment. As per the UN policy brief on gender and water, although women have primary responsibility for managing domestic water supply, sanitation and health, their central role in water management is overlooked. Clearly, issues of gender inequity are particularly important in the water sector.

The structure of the journal itself has been adapted for this Special Issue to present this mix of genres, disciplines and voices: the scholarly articles comprise the first part under 'Critical Essays'. The fiction and testimonial accounts comprise the second section entitled 'Narratives'. The 'Poetry' section follows thereafter and the book reviews are in the fourth section. This change in format is innovative and unusual in the history of the journal; it is undertaken to help us build on the tensions between as well as the similarities in women's experiences in their important, but often unacknowledged, role in water management in rural and urban settings.