Socio-political processes must be emphasised alongside climate change and urbanisation as key drivers of urban water insecurity

Catherine Fallon Grasham,George Neville

doi:10.2166/wp.2020.333

Catherine Fallon Grasham, George Neville

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2020.333

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Abstract

AbstractUrban water security is of critical global and local importance. Across many parts of low- and middle-income countries, urban water security either remains elusive or is becoming stressed. Rapid urbanisation and climate change are two key drivers of resource insecurity and at the forefront of urban water discourse. However, there are manifold and complex socio-political processes functioning alongside these megatrends that are often underemphasised. Drawing on three urban case studies in Ethiopia, we highlight these structural issues and the need for their continued consideration to fully understand and address urban water insecurity. Household water-use surveys, semi-structured interviews and participatory exercises with community residents, stakeholders and informal water vendors were used as part of a mixed-method approach in three urban areas. We found that government-managed urban water supplies were intermittent and unsafe, resulting in economic, health and time-use burdens for households, and that the socio-political dimensions reproducing urban water insecurity have historical roots. We argue that the uncertainty of climate change and unprecedented urbanisation do not offer sufficient explanation for why urban water insecurity persists. Moreover, we call for caution in only employing these narratives, to avoid obscuring deeply rooted challenges within socio-political systems. We call for socio-political processes to continue to be a central component of future interventions that seek to improve urban water insecurity.

Highlights

Urban water security is of critical global and local importance (Hoekstra et al, 2018; Grasham et al, 2019)
In order to do this, we unpack the socio-political processes and governance and institutional arrangements that underpin and continue to reproduce urban water insecurity in Ethiopia. We explore this across three diverse urban areas in Ethiopia, Wenji, Harar and Akaki Kality that offer unique insights into the barriers to urban water security
There were differences across the study sites where urban residents were adapting by accessing water from a range of informal sources of unknown quality

Summary

Introduction

Urban water security is of critical global and local importance (Hoekstra et al, 2018; Grasham et al, 2019). Across sub-Saharan Africa, urban water security has been receiving high attention within the context of the United Nation’s (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); goal 6 calls for access to sufficient safe and affordable water for all (UN, 2019). Ethiopia is receiving significant investment for improving urban water supplies both internationally and nationally, but urban water security across the country remains elusive. The latest available JMP (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme) data from 2017 suggest that only 38% of Ethiopia’s urban population are covered by safely managed water supply services ( JMP, 2019). Urban water supplies in the country are unsafe (Sisay et al, 2017), unaffordable and unreliable (Adank et al, 2016), and urban populations are unsatisfied with the water services they receive (Kassa et al, 2017)

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