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Conflicts of interest due to cultural, political, and social oversights have threatened effective and efficient corporate water governance in Nigeria. This has affected the inclusive participation of stakeholders, policy makers and the relevant agencies of the water resources management, thus hampering good water governance. Assessing the water governance impacts based on frameworks proposed for effective, efficient and inclusive governance was aimed. Information contributing to the governance input was highlighted by analyzing hydrological units that characterized Nigerian watersheds. Toxicological index (Ti) values were presented as a practical guideline to assessing water policy outcomes. The (Ti) - 1.0 dominated; signifying the water resources exposed to toxic environments. High pollutant loads associated with public health deterioration across Nigeria are considered as impacts indicating lagged water governance. While the lagged governance output manifested in some diseases relating to deficient access to potable water supply/poor sanitation services like Blue Baby syndrome, Renal/liver/lung diseases and blood cancer, the outcome showed an absence of health and social wellbeing. These indicators demonstrate the need for incorporating Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Principles on Water Governance in the Nigerian water governance system. Notably, flexibility across all governance levels can enable shared responsibility to balance economic activities and the ecological wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study are two fold: first, to develop a composite water security metric to assess water security at a national scale, and second, to explore the determinants of water security at the same scale in three developing regions - Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The water security index (WSI) was developed using three biophysical (water availability, climate risk and ecosystem vitality) and two socioeconomic (water accessibility and integrated water resources management) variables. Five independent variables (governance, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, percentage of urban population, official development assistance for water and sanitation services (ODA-WSS) and female primary school completion rate) were used to explore the determinants of water security. Results show that .90% of countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific regions are water-insecure, whereas most countries in LAC are water-secure except Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Statistical analyses show that GDP per capita, female primary school completion rate and governance are the key determinants of water security. This study provides empirical evidence on the link between female primary school completion rate and water security. Results further show a strong correlation between water security and ODA-WSS in the region with a higher ODA-WSS per capita than in regions with a low ODA-WSS per capita. This suggests that increasing ODAWSS per capita may enhance water security in developing regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2013 to 2015, the Brazilian southeast region experienced the most severe and intense drought recorded, the Water Crisis. This outstanding drought led the government to make efforts toward an adequate water resources management. In Campinas, the third most populous city of the State of São Paulo, the government proposed the Campinas Water Resources Master Plan (CWRMP), the main objective of which was to ensure the quantity and quality of water, reducing water vulnerability in the municipality. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of this plan through the major guidelines into four actions: (1) increase the permeability rate and the soil infiltration capacity, (2) increase the vegetation cover, (3) improve the sanitation services, and (4) minimize the number of contaminated areas. For Actions 1 and 2, we inferred that the aforementioned parameters have increased after the CWRMP enactment. About the Action 3, we found that Campinas has historically provided good sanitation services to the population, regardless of the CWRMP promulgation. However, more improvements should be given to waste collection and recycling services. The underground water consumption also has to be regulated, as significant exploitation has no legal permit. Finally, considering Action 4, the number of contaminated areas was reduced in the available data period. Therefore, the CWRMP was considered a valuable initiative to support an integrated and sustainable use of water, improving the water resources management in Campinas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the development of water supply and sanitation services (WSS) for vulnerable households, discussing the alignment of policies, institutions, and regulations to provide the right incentives to achieve universal access. It provides evidence of the actions carried out in Brazil, particularly the integration of the recent National Public Policy for the universalization of WSS and assistance to vulnerable areas. The expansion of private sector participation is discussed as an alternative to stimulate the universalization of WSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to address the challenges of inadequate safe water and proper sanitation in peri-urban communities in low-income countries. Agencies have tended to focus on a single aspect of the challenge for service delivery, which ultimately fails to capture the full scope of the problem. In this study, 63 household surveys and 15 key informant interviews regarding water and sanitation issues were conducted in a peri-urban area of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Results revealed that 87% of households experience water scarcity issues. More than 50% of the homes were surrounded by swampy areas with sewage and stagnant pools, with 40% reporting water source contamination due to seepage and overflowing of sewage collection systems. Key informants reported water scarcity and poor water quality due to poor sanitation practices and a compromised water supply network. We found that a highly integrated approach that invests in cultural, social, political, human, financial, and built community capitals is needed to address these challenges. Community self-efficacy and empowerment will be critical to accomplishing this and protecting public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poorly designed policies jeopardise ecosystems and their services and the expansion of basic services to vulnerable populations. In the water and sanitation (WatSan) sector, inadequate access of the urban poor to formal and public drinking water supply and sanitation services (WSS) calls for more inclusive policies. Inclusive development (ID) has social, environmental and relational dimensions. However, there is little research on operationalising ID dimensions in WatSan policy discourse analysis. Hence, this paper addresses: How can we elaborate on indicators for inclusive WatSan policies? How can these be applied to assess the design of Brazilian WatSan policies? It examines the literature on ID and WatSan, develops and applies an analytical framework with six indicators to assess ID in WSS through policy analysis: access to minimum WSS; access to WSS even if the urban poor do not have formal housing; domestic wastewater collection/treatment; water availability; participation; and WSS subsidies for low-income people. Comparison between two Brazilian WatSan policies shows that the current WatSan law scores higher on ID than the previous law but neglects key aspects of social, environmental and relational ID dimensions. The selected indicators were useful to operationalise ID in WatSan policy discourse analysis and can boost policy design assessment elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis presents a historical assessment of water supply and sanitation plans for the municipality of Belém, Brazil. The spirit of the assessment recognizes the importance of studying change in relation to historical dynamics, in addition to critiques of normative rationalism's inability to influence effective change in public policy. The research included interviews with social stakeholders, documentary analysis and direct observation. Three plans elaborated between 1980 and 2015 were studied. The results demonstrate that: (1) the emphasis of normative rationalism contributed to neglecting sanitation services; (2) the principles of intersectorality and social participation are fundamental to evolving from normative rationalism to strategic planning and communication on water supply and sanitation in Belém; (3) a large portion of local stakeholders are contrary to the privatization of sanitation services, while the most technically and economically powerful decision-makers in government defend that the State no longer has sufficient capacity to promote universal service coverage; and (4) a significant portion of civil society in Belém indicated their serious opposition to future scenarios for the water supply and sanitation sector that maintain technocracy in related public policies; however, such perspectives were not considered in the elaboration and implementation processes of government planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The provision of water supply and sanitation services in Brazil is characterized by a diverse range of management models, public or private operators and various judicial-institutional arrangements. Using a quali-quantitative technique - qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) - this article presents an investigation of determining factors for the presence of different service provision models in Brazil, and discusses the application of said technique. In this study, four models were comparatively analyzed: direct municipal administration, indirect municipal administration, state utility company, and private enterprise (PRIV). Eight municipalities, with an urban population ranging from 10 to 20 thousand inhabitants, from Minas Gerais (a state in the Southeast region of Brazil) were selected for this study. The findings suggest that the decision-making process regarding a service provision model, in the cases studied, involves a combination of economic, political, social, institutional, and legal factors. The qualitative comparative analysis proved capable of compiling information for this analysis as it uncovered how determining factors are inter-related and allowed the predominant factors in each of the studied management models to be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water governance remains barely understood in Kenya, despite the fact that water scarcity is endemic in the country. This study focuses on the role of decentralisation in water and sanitation services delivery in two subcounties: Kiambu and Thika. The study uses primary data from a survey involving 766 respondents and secondary evidence from water agencies' records. Findings point to the need to adopt decentralisation particularly in stakeholder participation on water issues, power and role distribution in the Kenyan water sector. Decentralisation trends have been shown to enhance accountability, acceptance of pluralistic trends, and efficient and effective service delivery. Water policy revisions, enforcement and the proactive nature of water users are also prerequisites to better water and sanitation services delivery, if sustainable water management will be realised in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s China has emerged as one of the world's most active markets for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in water and sanitation, while the private sector has played a rather limited role in the water sector in India. From 2001 to 2012, there were 237 PPP projects in water and sanitation in China, accounting for 40% of the total number of such projects globally, and the Chinese population served by private water companies increased from merely 8% in 1989 to 38% in 2008. Development of PPPs in the water sector in India during the same period was insignificant. Our comparative analysis of PPPs in water and sanitation in the two countries highlights the importance of water tariff reform, strong support and oversight from the national government, and the availability of credible regulatory mechanisms to safeguard development and sustainability of PPPs in the water sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving access to water and sanitation for vulnerable groups has been a significant development priority in recent decades and this has been coupled with calls for water and sanitation to be recognised as fundamental human rights. However, to date there has been very limited attention on the right to water and sanitation for homeless people, despite their high vulnerability to a range of water and sanitation insecurities. Drawing on empirical data from the Indian cities of Delhi and Bangalore, this paper examines homelessness and the right to water and sanitation. It highlights the everyday practices and experiences of homeless people in their efforts to access water and sanitation, and sheds light on some of the factors that contribute to their water and sanitation insecurity. It concludes that addressing the human right to water and sanitation for homeless people will require going beyond a technical and sector approach, to the more challenging task of tackling the complex factors that create and sustain their vulnerability and marginality in urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector planning, especially in developing countries, is both a theoretical and methodological challenge that is particularly important with regard to the field of environmental sanitation. This field is dominated by a technical vision that often ignores the complexity of the real world and the human dimension influenced by its actions, as opposed to a strategic one. This paper discusses the preparation of the Brazilian National Basic Sanitation Plan (Plano Nacional de Saneamento Básico -- PLANSAB) with a particular focus on its future scenario construction phase, which was primarily based on Situational Strategic Planning and prospective methods. Three scenarios were developed in a participatory process that consisted of several steps and involved various social actors, including governmental officials and authorities, informed by a team of experts in charge of the whole planning process. During the process, 10 extrinsic and intrinsic factors influencing the sector were considered, which led to the generation of a set of macro directives, strategies and targets for the expansion of access to water supply, sanitation, solid waste management and urban storm water management over the next 20 years. PLANSAB was able to overcome many of the criticisms that are typically raised with regard to traditional planning, although, as with any political process, it will not be immune from inertial factors that may create obstacles during the implementation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although significant progress is being made in the development of water resources in India, problematic management issues remain despite increased funding, a sizeable resource base (though with remarkable spatial and temporal variation) and a vast land resource. A large population and increasing demand pose challenges for water resource professionals, and mean that India continues to struggle to meet its water requirements. A comprehensive review of the water sector was undertaken to provide perspectives on the way forward. Based on an extensive review of the secondary literature and five regional consultations with key stakeholders, the pressures and drivers in the sector were examined. These included changes in water availability and access, and the role of the State and water programmes, the community, market and civil society in providing access and control over water for the people. Recommendations are made and compared with two other significant sector reviews at a national and regional level. There is a broad consensus emerging from these three major reviews, in terms of the focus on key actions proposed; these are in the areas of water resources, drinking water and sanitation for health, data and knowledge, policy and institutions, and capacity and disaster management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was a community-led, people-centred, demand-driven and incentive-based programme ideal to address India's rural sanitation crisis, or so it seemed. But policy failed to translate into practice and outcomes were remarkably poor. In the 2011 census data showed 31% sanitation coverage in 2011 (up from 22% in 2001), far from the 68% reported by the Government. The decade has witnessed progress slowing down and the number of rural households without latrines increasing by 8.3 million. This article draws on evidence from two coordinated studies in four Indian states. It aims to explore the dichotomy of TSC policy and practice, its causes, and the potential of the new sanitation campaign, the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). The study found that TSC implementation was unaligned with the programme's guiding principles. In reality the TSC was government-led, infrastructurecentred, subsidy-based and supply-led, leading to poor outcomes. The reasons behind the theory-practice gap include low political priority; flawed monitoring; distorting accountability and career incentives; technocratic and paternalistic inertia; and corruption. In the new NBA, despite promising changes such as a stronger demand creation focus, key issues hampering implementation remain ignored. It is thus doomed to fail, burdened by known past hurdles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human right to water and sanitation has been most commonly approached from the perspective of legal machinery and mechanisms for its implementation. Perhaps an underlying assumption among human rights practitioners is that once action for implementing the right is undertaken, its realization will be achieved. Often ignored are factors and processes at the micro-level where action for implementing the right actually takes place. This paper aims to propose a practical framework for analyzing this context that influences the action undertaken for realizing the right. The framework derives from an empirical study in India and is based upon an understanding of the micro-level processes at the 'interface' where the duty-bearing agents implementing action come face-to-face with the right-holders in the community. Both are situated in their own local contexts -- the 'implementation' and the 'socio-cultural' contexts respectively. The two contexts can in turn be understood as constituted of distinct 'normtriads' and the interactions between these ultimately lead to 'realization' or 'non-realization' of the right. The paper further contends that in order to translate the human right to water and sanitation into reality, it is necessary to identify the gaps and contradictions between the two contexts and address these appropriately and adequately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving access to water (and sanitation) services in Kenya (estimated at 59 and 32%, respectively), is one of the country's commitments. However, although efforts to address the situation through a rigorous water sector reform have shown some improvements, challenges still persist. One key challenge is inadequate capacity of sector institutions to deliver on their mandates. In particular, high Non-Revenue Water (NRW) levels (averaging 45%) negatively affect financial viability of water utilities. Key stakeholders are currently collaborating to improve NRW levels. Through capacity development support, underlying issues have been addressed and service delivery improved. The case of Nakuru Water, Sewerage and Sanitation Company (NAWASSCO), where local and international partners are implementing an innovative NRW model has resulted in commendable gains, is described. The NRW pilot adopted an action research approach to implement the International Water Association methodology of reducing NRW to the local situation through a pilot (NAKA). Emerging best practices will be up-scaled to other areas within and beyond Nakuru. Geographic information system (GIS) and management information system (MIS) tools were developed to facilitate decision-making. The pilot resulted in marked reduction in NRW levels and increased revenue. It demonstrates that capacity, when properly developed and locally owned, can result in commendable development gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Tanzanian water and sanitation (WatSan) sector, the human resource (HR) requirements for meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets have so far been relatively unknown. This study was therefore conducted with a focus on determining HR requirements in the public sector and parastatal institutions, in the private sector (private consultancy companies, individual contractors, etc.), and in non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations active in the broader water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector. The competences assessed were: design and construction of new infrastructure, operation and maintenance (O&M), community mobilization, sanitation, and hygiene promotion. The study found a greater HR shortage in rural areas than in urban areas. The smallest HR need is for social development professionals (estimated at 320 in the urban areas). In the water supply and sanitation sectors, the average number of water supply engineers that will be required to achieve MDGs is estimated at 3,864, compared to the sanitation sector, which will need 637 engineers. In terms of the demand for competences in the water supply sector, the highest need is for O&M professionals (7,589) and the lowest for mobilization professionals (447). The study recommends increasing the HR supply in the WatSan sector through the following measures: increasing support for training institutions offering relevant courses in WatSan; focusing on skills required for asset management and O&M, and giving specific attention to HR capacity development in small towns and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has been making policies relating to the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector since independence. The 2010 policy guidelines for the water and sanitation sectors have embarked on a new path of water security by identifying and emphasizing the importance of hitherto nagging bottlenecks in sustainable service delivery. This paper attempts to assess these policy guidelines critically and suggest ways to make them effective from the point of view of putting them into operation. This paper argues the following. (i) WASH sector financing needs to be addressed directly with realistic assessment of unit costs and their composition. (ii) Within the WASH sector sanitation needs special focus in terms of planning and allocations. Treating sanitation as an add-on to water would not be enough to improve the sanitation and hygiene conditions. The approach to sanitation needs to be focused on creating demand at the household level, segregating private and public responsibilities in this regard. (iii) Although the new guidelines try to bring a much needed balance between the cost components of new capital investment, they are not clear about post-construction support, especially capital maintenance and ring fencing the allocations towards O&M (operations and maintenance), as well as emphasizing that capital maintenance is critical for sustainable service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With water and sanitation vital to the public's health, there have been growing calls to accept water and sanitation as a human fight and establish a fights-based framework for water policy. Through the development of international law, policymakers have increasingly specified water and sanitation as independent human fights. In this political development of human fights for water and sanitation, the authors find that the evolution of fights-based water and sanitation policy reached a milestone in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly's 2010 Resolution on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation. By memorializing international political recognition of these interconnected rights and the corresponding obligations of national governments, states provided a normative framework for expanded efforts to realize human rights through water and sanitation policy. Examining the opportunities created by this UN Resolution, this article analyzes the implementation of the human fight to water and sanitation through global water governance, national water policy and water and sanitation outcomes. While obstacles remain in the implementation of this right, the authors conclude that the UN Resolution could have lasting benefits for public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied the Water Poverty Index (WPI) in border colonias of west Texas. The colonias are mostly unincorporated communities located primarily in New Mexico and Texas along the border with Mexico and are characterized by high poverty rates and sub-standard living conditions. In Texas, access to drinking water and sanitation services has been identified as one of the most significant determinants of health in over 350 colonias with about 50,000 residents. The WPI is a multidimensional measure that links household welfare with water availability which has been applied primarily in water poor countries. WPI components were identified and prioritized by a wide range of state stakeholders. This study demonstrated that the WPI can be an effective tool in integrating physical, social, economic and environmental information and in determining priorities associated with the water situation in wealthy countries with water poor communities such as colonias. These results highlight the need to classify the water necessities of colonias using a comprehensive but simple assessment tool that integrates several factors and is not based solely on infrastructure. They provide information that can be used by policy makers to provide assistance to Texas border communities with the greatest need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the question: how effective is a community driven development (CDD) approach to rural water supply? Some theoretical advantages of CDD approaches include: ( 1 ) community choices are more attuned to local needs; (2) sustainable O&M is more likely; (3) social capital is built: (4) more participation yields better oversight and less corruption: and (5) communities become active partners in development, itself a worthy objective. Using quantitative and qualitative data from a water supply and sanitation project in Punjab, Pakistan, the study finds that the CDD approach, consistent with expectations, has done well in extending water supply, drainage, and sanitation coverage to the poor rural communities, and demonstrated outcomes that are only achievable through CDD including water tariff and cultural changes. The project was also effective in promoting local participation and ownership, particularly by women's groups, and is therefore likely to have sustainable operation and maintenance (O & M). This study uncovers two dimensions of CDD in water and sanitation as means to an end: political reform, by proposing implementation strategies of decentralisation; and cultural reform, by providing an approach to break cultural barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water and sanitation services in developing countries are delivered in an extremely complex institutional environment, characterised by "soft" problems, that is problems with significant political and social components whose "what" and "how" cannot be defined early in the intervention process. A problem situation common in developing countries depicting "soft" characteristics is how to improve the effectiveness and efficacy of existing performance measurement systems to track the progress towards achievement of water/sanitation-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Such problem situations are better handled using soft systems methodology (SSM), a methodology recommended by Professor Checkland and his research colleagues at Lancaster University, UK. In 2003, SSM was applied in an intervention that aimed to improve performance measurement systems in the Uganda water/sanitation sector. Through strong participation of the key stakeholders, a team of researchers with their local counterparts in Uganda developed and field tested a performance measurement framework. According to an evaluation by the international donor community, policy makers and managers in the sector, the past three annual water/sanitation sector performance reports compiled using the performance measurement framework have depicted a progressive qualitative improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify possible scenarios for the evolution of the European water supply and sanitation sectors (WSS) in the next 15 years, on the basis of empirical knowledge of its dynamics. These are: tendered market, tendered market with strong regulation, administrative regulation, outsourcing, direct public management and community management. In order to do this, the authors examined the main characteristics of the sector that influence the way the sector is likely to evolve, the nature and scope of the WSS markets in Europe, as well as the role of the main actors involved in this sector (whether the European Union's institutions, public and private operators, or national regulators). This detailed analysis resulted in the framing of the main drivers of change affecting the whole sector in Europe, as well as three macro-storylines along two paradigms, a liberalized and a non-liberalized environment, that were at the basis of the identification of the water "scenarios". The authors have finally tested the plausibility of the scenarios in selected European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals for urban water supply and sanitation ~ 300,000 and ~ 400,000 people will have to be provided with an adequate water supply and adequate sanitation, respectively, every day during 2001-2015. The provision of urban water supply and sanitation services for these numbers of people necessitates action not only on an unprecedented scale, but also in a radically new way as "more of the same" is unlikely to achieve these goals. A "new paradigm" is proposed for low-cost urban water supply and sanitation, as follows: water supply and sanitation provision in urban areas and large villages should be to groups of households. not to individual households. Groups of households would form (even be required to form, or pay more if they do not) water and sanitation cooperatives. There would be standpipe and yard-tap cooperatives served by community-managed sanitation blocks, on-site sanitation systems or condominial sewerage, depending on space availability and costs and, for non-poor households, in house multiple-tap cooperatives served by condominial sewerage or, in low-density areas, by septic tanks with on-site effluent disposal. Very poor households (those unable to afford to form standpipe cooperatives) would be served by community-managed standpipes and sanitation blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), designed to combat global poverty and hunger, protect the environment, improve health and sanitation and promote education and gender equality, were agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The importance of access to clean water in the overall MDG process has been highlighted and shown to contribute to all other goals and targets. Goal 7 target 10 aims to "halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to sale drinking water and improved sanitation", compared with 1990. The aim of this MDG is clear and considered to be achievable in most countries. However, it is argued that the base data upon which the targets are set and against which progress will be measured can be problematic. partly because of reliance on poor government information and also on the apparent need of the UN to have a consistent base year and set of definitions across the world. In this paper, we report the findings of a major water and sanitation survey conducted in Kazakhstan designed specifically to quantify the current level of access, providing the base upon which to determine implementation priorities and against which to measure progress. As well as providing country-specific information the survey highlighted several important issues that have more general relevance. We raise three major questions associated with Target 10: how to define "'access", how to define "'improved source" or "improved sanitation" and whether 1990 is always an appropriate base year. Moreover, we argue that there is need to reconsider the way progress is monitored and that the focus on global comparisons is detrimental to making real progress. In conclusion we argue that improving water supply and sanitation can be done in a way that is (1) appropriate for the country, (2) feasible (and fairly easy) to monitor progress and (3) more likely to be accepted by government as there is a sense of relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]