Effective water safety management of piped water networks in low-income urban settlements

Abstract

Spiralling low-income settlements are a big challenge to urban water utilities of developing countries. To extend and maintain water services to these settlements, urban water utilities need to develop innovative solutions for overcoming various physical/technical, institutional, structural/legal and financial/economic constraints associated with these informal areas. This paper draws from documented pilot projects of implementing community-managed Water Safety Plans (WSPs) in various developing countries, and synthesises necessary ingredients for effective implementation of WSPs in low-income urban settlements. Urban water utilities need to partner with community members, but the former should keep a facilitating/overseeing role, given the overly technical nature of WSPs. The terms of the partnership should be mutually agreed and well documented; the utility should allow full participation of the relevant community members in the overall Operation and Maintenance (O&M) plan for the low-income settlement, in order to enhance community ownership of the water supply system, and continuously develop the capacity of relevant community members.The relevant community members should be facilitated, through participatory approaches, to develop bespoke community-based WSPs along with simple monitoring tools. Implementing community-managed WSPs will be easier and more effective if O&M systems and community management approaches are already institutionalised within the water utility.Keywords | community participation, low-income urban settlements, operation and maintenance, piped water supply system, water safety management

Capacity building and training approaches for water safety plans: A comprehensive literature review

“…Training plans typically apply a combination of: Lectures to explain the context, benefits, and elements of WSP implementation;Case studies (Greaves and Simmons, 2011; Schmoll et al, 2011);Practical exercises and technical training elements to gain firsthand experience with WSP development, either based on water supplies known to the participants or a fictional water supply;Role-play and other games (Barrington et al, 2013; Ferrero et al, 2018);Field elements such as visiting a water supplier to gain practical experience on the theoretical knowledge gained in the classroom (Shamsuddin et al, 2005);Supervised “on-the-job” training (WHO, 2014c), andParticipatory approaches for community members (Kayaga, 2013; Khatri et al, 2011). A list of WSP guidance and training material available in English was developed by WHO (2017f).…”

“…To achieve sustainable capacity to continually implement WSPs, the local-level enabling environment commonly includes a program champion (e.g., manager, administrator) (Summerill et al, 2010a), community engagement, sustainable financing, and iterative reevaluation. One study in low-income urban settlements suggests that community-managed WSPs require a high level of community participation in operation, maintenance, and monitoring, such that community members have a high degree of project ownership (Kayaga, 2013). Participation to varying degrees (e.g., in the form of cash contributions, labor, in-kind resources, or meeting attendance) may correspond to sustained buy-in.…”

“…For centrally-managed systems, the water utility should maintain active oversight, and formalize partnerships with community members and other stakeholders. Kayaga (2013) goes so far as to suggest the roles and responsibilities of utility and the community members be mutually discussed, agreed and tracked in a formal document, such as a memorandum of understanding (MoU). It is therefore advisable to include all target groups in capacity building and training activities at the local level.…”

Community water governance for urban water security in the Global South: Status, lessons, and prospects

“…As expected, institutional support, especially on technology, infrastructure, and funding, were important for success. Supportive institutional frameworks were also critical, as were transparency, financial and other accountability arrangements, and reliable leadership (Adams & Zulu, 2015; Ananga et al, 2016; Helgegren et al, 2019; Kayaga, 2013; Kifanyi et al, 2013). Relatively successful projects had high levels of community decision making and autonomy in day‐to‐day operations while utilizing outside technical expertise and financial support (Adegun, 2015).…”

Improving on-plot sanitation management in low-income settlements of cities of developing countries: case study from Maputo, Mozambique

“…Although the proportion of the urban population living in slums of cities in the world's developing regions declined from 39.4% to 32.6% during 2000-2010, the absolute numbers of slum dwellers actually increased from 770 million to 840 million in the same period (UN-HABITAT, 2013). Hence, providers of infrastructural services such as water, sanitation and roads will continue to experience challenges to overcome the physical, technical, economic, institutional and legal constraints encountered in extending services to the escalating informal, high-density and often unplanned settlements (Kayaga, 2013).…”