Social networks for management of water scarcity: Evidence from the San Miguel Watershed, Sonora, Mexico

Luis Alan Navarro-Navarro
CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología), El Colegio de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico; lnavarro@colson.edu.mx

Jose Luis Moreno-Vazquez
El Colegio de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico; jmoreno@colson.edu.mx

Christopher A. Scott
Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, and School of Geography & Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA; cascott@email.arizona.edu

ABSTRACT: Pervasive social and ecological water crises in Mexico remain, despite over two decades of legal and institutional backing for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a policy tenet. In this article we apply a socialshed analysis to uncover and understand the geographical and jurisdictional forces influencing the social construction and simultaneous fragmentation of the San Miguel Watershed (SMW) in the state of Sonora, in Mexico’s water-scarcity bulls-eye. Specific insights derived from an empirical analysis include that water management (WM) is socially embedded in dense networks of family and friends, farmers and ranchers, citizens and local government – all to varying degrees sharing information about local water crises. Irrigation water user representatives (WUR) are connected across communities and within their own municipalities, but inter-watershed social links with other WUR are virtually nonexistent, despite high levels of awareness of cross-municipality WM problems. Implementation of IWRM as a federal policy by a single agency and the creation of basin councils and subsidiary technical committees for groundwater management have not been sufficient for technical – much less social – integration at the watershed level. This study shows that the SMW socialshed remains fragmented by local jurisdictions; without coordinated agency-jurisdiction-local action fomenting social connections, a socialshed will not emerge.

KEYWORDS: Socialshed, IWRM, watershed management, social networks, Sonora, Mexico

Water for survival, water for pleasure – A biopolitical perspective on the social sustainability of the basic water agenda

Sofie Hellberg
School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden; and School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; sofie.hellberg@globalstudies.gu.se

ABSTRACT: This article explores the social sustainability of the basic water agenda. It does so through a biopolitical analysis of water narratives from eThekwini municipality, South Africa, where a policy of Free Basic Water (FBW) has been implemented. The article addresses the question of what water 'is' and 'does' and shows that water and water governance are productive of lifestyles, people’s self-understanding and how they view their place in the social hierarchy. The analysis brings to light that a differentiated management system, that provides different levels of water services to different populations and individuals, becomes part of (re)producing social hierarchies and deepens divisions between communities. Based on these findings, the article argues that while the basic water agenda has brought successful results globally and remains important in terms of guaranteeing health and survival for the most vulnerable, it should not be confused with efforts of social sustainability. Social sustainability would not only involve a situation where basic needs are met but would also have to address effects of water systems on the relationships between individuals and populations in society.

KEYWORDS: Social sustainability, water, basic needs, biopolitics, South Africa

Transformations accompanying a shift from surface to drip Irrigation in the Cànyoles Watershed, Valencia, Spain

Saioa Sese-Minguez
Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; saioa.sese@gmail.com

Harm Boesveld
Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; harm.boesveld@wur.nl

Sabina Asins-Velis
Department of Environmental Planning, Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación-CIDE, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain; sabina.asins@uv.es

Saskia van der Kooij
Water Resources Management Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; saskia.vanderkooij@gmail.nl

Jerry Maroulis
Soil Physics and Land Management, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; and International Centre for Applied Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia; jerry.maroulis@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: Drip irrigation is widely promoted in Spain to increase agricultural production and to save water. In the Cànyoles watershed, Valencia, we analysed the consequences of change from surface irrigation to drip irrigation over the past 25 years. There were a number of transformations resulting from, or accelerated by, this change including the 1) intensification of well construction causing a redistribution in access to groundwater, water shortages and a lowering of the groundwater table; 2) expansion of irrigation into former rain-dependent uphill areas resulting in increased water use; 3) shift to higher- value monoculture fruit crops, but with associated higher crop water requirements; 4) increased electrical energy consumption and higher costs due to groundwater pumping; and 5) loss of cultural heritage as wells have replaced traditional surface irrigation infrastructure that originated in the Middle Ages. Consequently, the authors argue that transitioning from surface irrigation to drip irrigation should critically look beyond the obvious short-term benefits that are intended by the introduction of the technology, and consider possible unforeseen side effects, that may have serious long-term impacts on the environment and the community.

KEYWORDS: Drip irrigation, water saving, energy consumption, agricultural land use/expansion, cultural heritage loss, Cànyoles watershed, Spain

Disaggregating orders of water scarcity - The politics of nexus in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania

Anna Mdee
Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Leeds, UK; a.l.mdee@leeds.ac.uk

ABSTRACT: This article considers the dilemma of managing competing uses of surface water in ways that respond to social, ecological and economic needs. Current approaches to managing competing water use, such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and the concept of the water-energy-food nexus do not adequately disaggregate the political nature of water allocations. This is analysed using Mehta’s (2014) framework on orders of scarcity to disaggregate narratives of water scarcity in two ethnographic case studies in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin in Tanzania: one of a mountain river that provides water to urban Morogoro, and another of a large donor-supported irrigation scheme on the Wami River. These case studies allow us to explore different interfaces in the food-water-energy nexus. The article makes two points: that disaggregating water scarcity is essential for analysing the nexus; and that current institutional frameworks (such as IWRM) mask the political nature of the nexus, and therefore do not provide an adequate platform for adjudicating the interfaces of competing water use.

KEYWORDS: Nexus, politics, water scarcity, Tanzania, IWRM

Women and rural water management: Token representatives or paving the way to power?

Christina Geoffrey Mandara
Environmental Planning Department, Institute of Rural Development Planning, Dodoma, Tanzania; tinagm_2004@yahoo.com

Anke Niehof
Sociology of Consumption and Households Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; anke.niehof@wur.nl

Hilje van der Horst
Sociology of Consumption and Households Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands; hilje.vanderhorst@wur.nl

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses how informal structures intersect with women’s participation in formally created decision-making spaces for managing domestic water at the village level in Tanzania. The results reveal the influence of the informal context on women’s access to and performance in the formal decision-making spaces. Overall, there is low community involvement in local governance structures, and in most village assemblies that of women is even less. Only in the Social Welfare Committee women are fairly well represented, presumably because of its linkage with the traditional division of labour and women’s practical gender needs. In the Village Water Committees, women’s representation is regulated by a quota system but women rarely occupy leadership positions. Even when husbands are supportive, patriarchal culture, scepticism and negative stereotypical assumptions on female leadership frustrate the government’s effort to enlarge women’s representation in the local decision-making spaces. Three entry points for change were identified: successful women leaders as role models; women’s passive participation in village meetings that could develop into active participation; and women’s membership of social and economic groups which strengthens their skills and bargaining position.

KEYWORDS: Women participation, domestic water management, Tanzania

Barriers and opportunities for the involvement of indigenous knowledge in water resources management in the Gam River Basin in north-east Vietnam

Thi Hieu Nguyen
Research Centre for Resources and Rural Development, Hanoi, Vietnam; hieu49mt@gmail.com

Anne Ross
School of Social Science/School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia; annie.ross@uq.edu.au

ABSTRACT: Water resources management today has shifted from a purely technical response to one that involves multiple stakeholders to allow for cross-cultural and cross-issue discussion and cooperative management. However, the integration of indigenous knowledge and local people into mainstream natural resources management is still restricted due to epistemological and institutional obstacles. This research explores the differences in perceptions of the nature of water resources, and their consequent management, existing between local people and the government in the Gam River Basin of Vietnam, concentrating on the views of the majority Tay and Dao peoples. We focus on how knowledge differences can be communicated and how water management can integrate different ways of knowing. We identify barriers to, and opportunities for, the involvement of indigenous knowledge and local people in water resources management at the research site. We argue that local needs and aspirations in relation to the use and management of water resources do indeed have a role in the modern world, contrary to the views of many scientists and government officers. Therefore, indigenous knowledge needs to be considered in water resources management schemes, to achieve the effective and sustainable use of water in areas such as the Gam River Basin.

KEYWORDS: Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, water management, ethnic people, Gam River Basin, Vietnam

Cultivating innovation and equity in co-production of commercialized spring water in peri-urban Bandung, Indonesia

Anindrya Nastiti
Environmental Management Technology Research Group, The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; anindrya@tl.itb.ac.id

Sander V. Meijerink
Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen; s.meijerink@fm.ru.nl

Mark Oelmann
Hochschule Ruhr West, University of Applied Science, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany; mark.oelmann@hs-ruhrwest.de

A.J.M. Smits
Institute for Science, Innovation, and Society, Radboud University, Nijmegen; and Delta Areas and Resources Applied Research Centre, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Science, Velp, the Netherlands; a.smits@science.ru.nl

Barti Setiani Muntalif
Environmental Management Technology Research Group, The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, West Java Indonesia; dwinaroosmini@yahoo.com

Arief Sudradjat
Environmental Management Technology Research Group, The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; arief.sudradjat@yahoo.com

Dwina Roosmini
Environmental Management Technology Research Group, The Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia; barti_setiani@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: This paper examines a co-production arrangement between private actors, households, and community actors occurring within the framework of scheme of commercialised spring water in peri-urban Bandung, Indonesia. We argue that the provision of spring water in Ujungberung District is a form of co-production, characterised by: (1) any one, or the elements, of the service production process being shared; (2) the presence of a fundamental shift in the balance of power between the primary producers and users/communities, and (3) the existence of mutual support and relationship networks, rather than a clearly defined delineation between providers and clients. Actor contributions defined as inputs along the value chain of spring water production were examined. We describe interactions between local private actors and community members in planning, service delivery, and conflict management with respect to disruption of water supplies, free-riding behaviour, and the geographical distribution of services. This paper identifies several institutional innovations that may yield a safer and more affordable water supply and nurture equity in the sense of: (1) improved access to water for the previously unserved people by piped water and boreholes; (2) the opportunity to negotiate from below; and (3) transparency and accountability.

KEYWORDS: Co-production, equity, innovation, water commercialisation, Indonesia

Coexistence and conflict: IWRM and large-scale water infrastructure development in piura, Peru

Megan Mills-Novoa
School of Geography and Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA mmillsnovoa@email.arizona.edu

Rossi Taboada Hermoza
Laboratorio de Teledetección, Universidad Nacional de San Marcos, Lima, Perú; and Escuela de Posgrado, Pontifica Universidad Católica de Perú, Lima, Perú r.taboadah@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Despite the emphasis of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) on 'soft' demand-side management, large-scale water infrastructure is increasingly being constructed in basins managed under an IWRM framework. While there has been substantial research on IWRM, few scholars have unpacked how IWRM and large-scale water infrastructure development coexist and conflict. Piura, Peru is an important site for understanding how IWRM and capital-intensive, concrete-heavy water infrastructure development articulate in practice. After 70 years of proposals and planning, the Regional Government of Piura began construction of the mega-irrigation project, Proyecto Especial de Irrigación e Hidroeléctrico del Alto Piura (PEIHAP) in 2013. PEIHAP, which will irrigate an additional 19,000 hectares (ha), is being realised in the wake of major reforms in the Chira-Piura River Basin, a pilot basin for the IWRM-inspired 2009 Water Resources Law. We first map the historical trajectory of PEIHAP as it mirrors the shifting political priorities of the Peruvian state. We then draw on interviews with the newly formed River Basin Council, regional government, PEIHAP, and civil society actors to understand why and how these differing water management paradigms coexist. We find that while the 2009 Water Resources Law labels large-scale irrigation infrastructure as an 'exceptional measure', this development continues to eclipse IWRM provisions of the new law. This uneasy coexistence reflects the parallel desires of the state to imbue water policy reform with international credibility via IWRM while also furthering economic development goals via large-scale water infrastructure. While the participatory mechanisms and expertise of IWRM-inspired river basin councils have not been brought to bear on the approval and construction of PEIHAP, these institutions will play a crucial role in managing the myriad resource and social conflicts that are likely to result.

KEYWORDS: Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), large-scale water infrastructure, Peru

The São Francisco interbasin water transfer in Brazil: Tribulations of a megaproject through constraints and controversy

Philippe Roman
IHEAL-CREDA (Institute of Latin American Studies), Paris, France philipperoman13@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the complex social, political and economic dynamics that led the Brazilian government to launch one of the biggest hydraulic infrastructure projects in the country’s history: the transposição do São Francisco (transfer of the waters of the São Francisco River), a large-scale diversion scheme to transfer water from the São Francisco River Basin to semiarid areas of the Northeastern Region. This massive interbasin water transfer, first idealised in the nineteenth century, was turned into reality under Lula’s presidency, at a time when the Brazilian economy was booming and a left-leaning neo-developmentalist coalition had seized power. Such a controversial project has fuelled criticism from a wide social and political spectrum. Between 2005 and 2007, when the conflict was at its highest, large parts of society mobilised against the project, which makes the transposição one of the most remarkable socioenvironmental conflicts in the history of Brazil. The project was given the green light at a moment when water governance was undergoing a process of institutional reorganisation officially aiming at the implementation of more democratic procedures and of integrated governance principles. So, it can be viewed as an anachronism of the 'hydraulic mission' with its supply-side technocratic engineering solutions. But it can also be considered as a legitimate and necessary piece of water development, in an emerging country with acute regional water imbalances, that is to benefit a historically underprivileged region (the Northeast). Beyond such simplistic views, we will try to disentangle the complex nexus of political and economic interests and of conflicting discourses related to the extremely diverse set of actors that have played a role in the project, and thereby try to understand why, after more than a century of debate, the transposição has finally become a (still heatedly debated) reality.

KEYWORDS: Interbasin water transfer, megaproject, socioenvironmental conflict, neodevelopmentalism, São Francisco River, Brazil

Piping water from rural counties to fuel growth in Las Vegas, Nevada: Water transfer risks in the arid USA West

Lisa W. Welsh
Utah State University, Department of Environment and Society, Logan, Utah, USA lisa.welsh@usu.edu

Joanna Endter-Wada
Utah State University, Department of Environment and Society, Logan, Utah, USA joanna.endter-wada@usu.edu

ABSTRACT: The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) plans to build a 300-mile pipeline to transfer groundwater from five rural basins in north-eastern Nevada south to the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. Relying on the path dependence literature, we trace the policy choices and legal battles that have led to southern Nevada’s proposed Groundwater Development Project. We find that policy decisions over time, often initiated by powerful water policy entrepreneurs, have fuelled southern Nevada’s rapid growth and development. After emphasising water demand management for more than two decades, SNWA has revived its controversial plans to increase water supplies by importing water from rural areas. Using semi-structured key-informant interviews and document analysis of water right hearing transcripts, public comments, and hearing rulings, we examine the risks and uncertainties involved in SNWA’s Groundwater Development Project. SNWA and the protestors of the project experience different aspects of risk and uncertainty. SNWA believes the Groundwater Development Project is an essential addition to its current water strategy to reduce the political and economic risks from Colorado River shortages that could endanger southern Nevada’s longer-term economic survival. Protestors believe the uncertainty of SNWA’s mitigation and management plans are inadequate to protect rural basins from the long-term ecological and hydrological risks and uncertainties associated with SNWA’s pumping and export of groundwater from their areas. Our analysis reveals a much deeper and longer path dependence trajectory in the USA West of overpopulating an arid region, subsidising decades of infrastructure development to promote economic development, and creating dependencies on increasingly scarce water supplies. A paradigm shift much larger than water demand management is required to reverse this trajectory and deal with the dilemmas of unabated growth in desert metropolitan areas dependent on distant water sources.

KEYWORDS: Path dependence, water infrastructure, policy entrepreneurs, risk assessment, Las Vegas, USA

A new era of big infrastructure? (Re)developing water storage in the U.S. West in the context of climate change and environmental regulation

Denielle M. Perry
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA dperry3@uoregon.edu

Sarah J. Praskievicz
Department of Geography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA spraskievicz@ua.edu

ABSTRACT: For most of the 20th century, water policy in the western United States was driven by the construction of large dams and other big infrastructural projects to increase water storage. By the 1980s, however, most optimal sites were developed or protected through conservation policies. Today, climate change and growing water demands pose new challenges for water management. Consequently, policy-makers are once again advocating for water storage. In the U.S. and other developed countries, this return to supply-side solutions is manifesting in auxiliary infrastructural projects such as dam augmentation and aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). We argue that the return to a high-modernist reliance on big infrastructure is not limited to developing countries and illustrate the rise of auxiliary infrastructure using two case studies in California and Oregon. Our analysis suggests these auxiliary infrastructural projects are appealing to water managers because they purport to accommodate the demand for new water-governance strategies while working within the limitations imposed by past infrastructural development and environmental policy. Nevertheless, increasing storage capacity alone is insufficient for water management in the context of climate change, for demand-side strategies must also be pursued.

KEYWORDS: Political ecology, climate change, adaptation, conservation policy, water governance, infrastructure

Muddy waters: International actors and transboundary water cooperation in the Ganges-Brahmaputra problemshed

Paula Hanasz
Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University paula.hanasz@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT: The portion of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna mega-basin shared between Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, and Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most densely populated, ecologically vulnerable, and socially and politically unstable areas in the world. As such, reducing the potential for transboundary water conflict by increasing cooperation between riparian states has been of increasing interest to policy-makers and foreign aid donors.The World Bank-led South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI) commenced in the mid-2000s. Yet, in more than a decade of existence, neither SAWI nor other international initiatives, have been able to improve transboundary water interactions between India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. In part this is because of the sheer complexity of transboundary water governance, and in part because of contextual factors. Addressing transboundary water issues is not a priority for the riparian states; there is significant distrust between them and resentment about India’s hydro-hegemony; and bilateral, rather than multilateral, arrangements prevail. These factors make collective action both more urgent and more difficult. If they are to increase transboundary water cooperation, international actors should, among other things, resolve historical grievances; strengthen water-sharing institutions; build trust between riparian states; and work toward outcomes based on principles of water justice.

KEYWORDS: Water conflict, water governance, foreign aid and investment, World Bank, South Asia

Muddy waters: International actors and transboundary water cooperation in the Ganges-Brahmaputra problemshed

Paula Hanasz
Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University paula.hanasz@anu.edu.au

ABSTRACT: The portion of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna mega-basin shared between Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, and Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most densely populated, ecologically vulnerable, and socially and politically unstable areas in the world. As such, reducing the potential for transboundary water conflict by increasing cooperation between riparian states has been of increasing interest to policy-makers and foreign aid donors.
The World Bank-led South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI) commenced in the mid-2000s. Yet, in more than a decade of existence, neither SAWI nor other international initiatives, have been able to improve transboundary water interactions between India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. In part this is because of the sheer complexity of transboundary water governance, and in part because of contextual factors. Addressing transboundary water issues is not a priority for the riparian states; there is significant distrust between them and resentment about India’s hydro-hegemony; and bilateral, rather than multilateral, arrangements prevail. These factors make collective action both more urgent and more difficult. If they are to increase transboundary water cooperation, international actors should, among other things, resolve historical grievances; strengthen water-sharing institutions; build trust between riparian states; and work toward outcomes based on principles of water justice.

KEYWORDS: Water conflict, water governance, foreign aid and investment, World Bank, South Asia

Urban drainage in Barcelona: From hazard to resource?

David Saurí
Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain david.sauri@uab.cat

Laura Palau-Rof
Departament de Geografia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain laupalau@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Our objective in this paper is to trace the historical trajectory of urban drainage in Barcelona from the 19th century to the present highlighting the main changes in approach, from the 'everything down the drain' philosophy of the 19th century to the sustainable urban drainage systems of the early 21st century. In this trajectory we identify four main historical periods. The first period corresponds to the 'Garcia Faria Plan' of the late 19th century which initiated the construction of modern drainage in Barcelona. The second period, lasting for much of the 20th century, showed the expansion of the centralised sewer system that, however, could not solve the chronic problems of flooding and pollution created by fast urbanisation. The third period, governed by the Olympic Games of 1992 and the rehabilitation of the beach front, entailed a massive reconfiguration of the sewer system now connected to wastewater treatment plants and enhanced with a number of large underground stormwater reservoirs. Finally, since the early 2000s, urban drainage is increasingly adopting decentralised, small-scale solutions to drainage such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). While signs of the transition towards a more sustainable approach to urban drainage are already present, the conventional approach remains strong and appears to be evolving also towards more sustainable solutions. Hence, system coexistence rather than substitution appears to be the outcome of the transition in urban drainage in this city.

KEYWORDS: Urban drainage, history, security, sustainability, Barcelona

Resource recovery and reuse as an incentive for a more viable sanitation service chain

Krishna C. Rao
Business Model Analysis and Enterprise Development, International Water Management Institute, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka k.c.rao@cgiar.org

Miriam Otoo
Business Model Analysis and Enterprise Development, International Water Management Institute, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka m.otoo@cgiar.org

Pay Drechsel
Resource Recovery, Water Quality and Health, International Water Management Institute, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka p.drechsel@cgiar.org

Munir A. Hanjra
c/o International Water Management Institute, Pretoria, South Africa mahanjra@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT: Recovering nutrients, water and energy from domestic waste streams, including wastewater and faecal sludge, is slowly gaining momentum in low-income countries. Resource recovery and reuse (RRR) offers value beyond environmental benefits through cost recovery. An expected game changer in sanitation service provision is a business model where benefits accrued via RRR can support upstream sanitation services despite the multitude of private and public stakeholders involved from waste collection to treatment. This paper shows options of how resource recovery and reuse can be an incentive for the sustainable sanitation service chain, by recovering costs where revenue can feed back internally or using generated revenues from reuse to fill financial gaps across the service chain to complement other supporting mechanisms for making waste management more attractive.

KEYWORDS: Faecal sludge, resource recovery, business models, cost recovery, waste treatment

Who carries the weight of water? Fetching water in rural and urban areas and the implications for water security

Jo-Anne Geere
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom jo.geere@uea.ac.uk

Moa Cortobius
UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Stockholm, Sweden moa.cortobius@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The global burden of fetching water, particularly its effects on individuals and societies, is largely unknown because comparative analysis of the global data available is incomplete and scarce. To address this information gap, this article presents a synthesis of the data on water-fetching from households in 23 countries. In rural areas of the dataset almost 50% of the population still have to bring water from a source outside of their home or yard. Women generally carry the main responsibility for fetching water; however, in many countries and in particular in urban areas, men also take on a great share of this work. The mean single trip time to collect water ranges from 10 to 65 minutes in urban areas with an average increase or decrease of 2 to 13 minutes in rural areas. Further, up to 60% of children support the collection of wood and water, in some countries spending up to 11.3 hours per week. Water fetching continues to have the greatest impact on women and children in poorer rural areas and is likely to be a substantial barrier to household water security and sustainable development in regions most in need of sustainable development.

KEYWORDS: Water fetching, MICs surveys, global data, time, health impacts

Characteristics of stakeholder networks supporting local government performance improvements in rural water supply: Cases from Ghana, Malawi, and Bolivia

Duncan McNicholl
Cambridge University, Department of Engineering, Cambridge, UK drm60@cam.ac.uk

Allan McRobie
Cambridge University, Department of Engineering, Cambridge, UK fam@eng.cam.ac.uk

Heather Cruickshank
Independent Consultant hjcruickshank@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: A study of local governments in Ghana, Malawi, and Bolivia applies social network analysis to identify characteristics of stakeholder networks supporting performance improvements in these institutions. Seven local governments that have demonstrated performance improvements are studied. Network analysis is combined with qualitative analysis of a commentary from primary interviews with stakeholders in these networks to identify characteristics that are observable from a network perspective and perceived as important by stakeholders active in these networks. Three network characteristics are identified in multiple cases as supporting improvements in local government performance. The first network characteristic is multiple information and skill ties between a local government and other local stakeholders including communities and operators. The second network characteristic is strong information and skill ties between a local government and higher levels of sector hierarchy. The third characteristic is coordination between stakeholders at higher levels of sector hierarchy that have strong information and skill ties with a local government. Strong information and skill ties between these support providers can help them to coordinate their efforts to collaboratively support local governments. These three characteristics can be used to analyse other stakeholder networks around local governments to identify where certain relationships that might support institutional development are missing.

KEYWORDS: Social network analysis, local government, institutional development, rural water supply

Nation-building, industrialisation, and spectacle: Political functions of Gujarat’s Narmada pipeline project

Mona Luxion
School of Urban Planning, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada m.luxion@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Since 2000 the Indian state of Gujarat has been working to construct a state-wide water grid to connect 75% of its approximately 60 million urban and rural residents to drinking water sourced from the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River. This project represents a massive undertaking – it is billed as the largest drinking water project in the world – and is part of a broader predilection toward large, concrete-heavy supply-side solutions to water insecurity across present-day India. This paper tracks the claims and narratives used to promote the project, the political context in which it has emerged, the purposes it serves and, following Ferguson (1990), the functioning of the discursive-bureaucratic 'machine' of which it is a product.
The dam’s reinvention as the solution to Gujarat’s drinking water shortfall – increasingly for cities and Special Industrial Regions – reflects a concern with attracting and retaining foreign investment through the creation of so-called 'world-class' infrastructure. At the same time, this reinvention has contributed to a project of nation-building, while remaining cloaked in a discourse of technological neutrality. The heavy infrastructure renders visible Gujarat’s commitment to 'development' even when that promise has yet to be realised for many, while the promise of Narmada water gives Gujarat’s leaders political capital with favoured investors and political supporters. In conclusion, I suggest that the success of infrastructure mega-projects as a political tool is not intrinsically tied to their ability to achieve their technical and social objectives. Instead, the 'spectacle' of ambitious infrastructural development projects may well yield political gains that outweigh, for a time, the real-world costs of their inequity and unsustainability.

KEYWORDS: Development, Sardar Sarovar Dam, Narmada pipeline project, anti-politics, Gujarat

Viewpoint – taking a multidimensional approach to small town water supply: The case of Paikgachha

Imrul Kayes Muniruzzaman
Director – Fundraising and Learning, WaterAid Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh imrulkayesmuniruzzaman@wateraid.org

Shahrukh Mirza
Strategic Support Specialist, WaterAid Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh shahrukhmirza@wateraid.org

Khairul Islam
Country Director, WaterAid Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh khairulIslam@wateraid.org

Kolimullah Koli
Independent Consultant koli713165@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Ensuring access to safe drinking water in climate-vulnerable southwest Bangladesh is a growing challenge. People living in the coastal municipality town of Paikgachha in Khulna District are suffering from an acute crisis of drinking water due to contamination of groundwater by salinity, iron and arsenic. WaterAid Bangladesh piloted a piped water supply model with a progressive tariff approach that brings residents, especially the poor, safe and affordable water, while ensuring financial sustainability of the model. This paper discusses how the multidimensional approach underlying the development of the piped water system successfully addressed the social and institutional dimensions of water supply in a context involving multiple stressors. The initiative has demonstrated that sustainable service with full cost recovery is possible while addressing equity issues in the challenging circumstances of Bangladesh’s coast.

KEYWORDS: water supply, piped water, small town, progressive tariff, sociotechnical approach, Bangladesh