Abstract
High urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has resulted in increased peri-urban groundwater contamination by on-site sanitation. The World Health Organization introduced Water Safety Plans (WSP) towards the elimination of contamination risks to water supply systems; however, their application to peri-urban groundwater sources has been limited. Focusing on Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania, this paper reviews limitations of the existing water regime in addressing peri-urban groundwater contamination through WSPs and normative attributes of Transition Management (TM) towards a sustainable solution. Microbial and nutrient contamination remain prevalent hazards in peri-urban SSA, arising from on-site sanitation within a water regime following Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. Limitations to implementation of WSPs for peri-urban groundwater protection include policy diversity, with low focus on groundwater; institutional incoherence; highly techno-centric management tools; and limited regard for socio-cultural and urban-poor aspects. In contrast, TM postulates a prescriptive approach promoted by community-led frontrunners, with flexible and multi-domain actors, experimenting through socio-technical tools towards a shared vision. Thus, a unified risk-based management framework, harnessing attributes of TM and IWRM, is proposed towards improved WSP implementation. The framework could assist peri-urban communities and policymakers in formulating sustainable strategies to reduce groundwater contamination, thereby contributing to improved access to safe water.
Highlights
Groundwater contamination by human activities is a growing global concern in light of increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and agriculture [1,2]
Murphy et al [18] reported that over 60% of groundwater sources tested in Kampala (Uganda) were positive for Escherichia coli (E. coli), which is commonly attributed to fecal contamination, during a typhoid outbreak in 2015, which affected more than 10,000 people
This paper aims to highlight the existing water regime challenges towards implementing Water Safety Plans (WSP) for protecting peri-urban groundwater against contamination by on-site sanitation and explore normative attributes of Transition Management (TM) towards a sustainable solution
Summary
Groundwater contamination by human activities is a growing global concern in light of increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and agriculture [1,2]. On-site sanitation facilities, mainly pit latrines and septic tanks, remain the primary form of improved sanitation in rural and peri-urban areas in most of the developing world, including Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); South, East, and Central Asia; Southern and Middle America, and Oceania [4,5,6]. While such facilities have promoted access to improved sanitation to the peri-urban communities, their increased number, and usually poor construction and maintenance, results in increased groundwater contamination [4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. SSA lags behind other regions of the world in the struggle to meeting sustainable development goal (SDG) number 6 on universal access to safe water and sanitation [5,14]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
