Sustainable Water Services Research Articles

Structural equation modeling for assessing of the sustainability of rural water supply systems

As one of the basic human needs, water services should be sustainable. Researches related to the sustainability of water services have been conducted in several developing countries. However, there are no identical researches in Indonesia. This paper discusses the analysis of factors that contribute to sustainability of rural water supply systems in East Java, Indonesia. Data is collected by observing rural water supply facilities, interviewing water committees and water users, and taking documentation. The data is used to build a model, which was developed from theoretical or conceptual model. The model's development uses structural equation modeling (SEM). This model can show the factors that contribute to sustainability of rural water supply systems. The sustainability is influenced significantly by nine variables; they are selection of technology, water sources, investment cost, capability of operator, availability of spare parts, operation cost, technical operation, community participation, and institutional management.

Sustainable Water Service Delivery: An Assessment of a Water Agency in a Rapidly Urbanizing City in Nigeria

In the Nigerian Federation, water supply is a state responsibility. State governments have therefore created State Water Agencies to manage and operate systems for water service delivery in all urban and semi-urban areas. Generally, these State Water Agencies have failed to effectively deliver water services to the people. In Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State Water Corporation is saddled with the task of meeting the water needs of the city dwellers. This paper examines some factors that explain the poor service delivery level of the Corporation. Adopting a sample size of 1,200 (4% of the total number of households in Ado-Ekiti) through random sampling technique, empirical estimates show that factors that significantly affect the performance level of this Corporation include: payment for water supply, billing system, adequacy of supply, frequency of pumping of water, notices from the Corporation in cases of system breakdown, response to leakages, adequacy of public standing pipes and appropriate location or distribution of standing pipes. The paper clamored for an evolvement of water policy for the state that would adequately address the issues emanating from the significant factors affecting the Corporation performance.

Determinants of customer decisions to pay utility water bills promptly

Cost recovery is a prerequisite for sustainable water service provision. For water utilities, one of the key determinants of overall cost recovery efficiency is the ability to recover payment, within a reasonable timeframe, for all the water bills sent to customers. This study used empirical data, obtained through a cross-sectional survey in eight small urban centres in Uganda, to establish the determinants of customer decisions to pay utility water bills promptly. Regression analysis on the data showed that customer attitude towards prompt payment, perceived ease or difficulty of paying on time (perceived control), as well as social pressure, strongly influence intentions to pay, which in turn directly affects actual prompt bill payment behaviour. The results also show that attitudes towards prompt payment are informed by perceptions of benefits and sacrifices associated with the behaviour, while social pressure is perceived to come from family members, neighbours and the utility itself. Perceived control was found to reflect both internal and external impediments to prompt bill payment, many of which relate to service issues that are within the control of water utility managers.

Integration of urban water services

An important aspect of urban water systems is the interactions that take place between different components of the system (e.g. foul water from leaky sewers entering into a drinking water distribution network). It is widely recognised that it is important to consider these interactions in order to maintain effective, efficient and safe water and sanitation services. Hence, an integrated approach to urban water management (IUWM) is necessary. This paper begins by presenting a case study in India that highlights the important interactions that takes place between different components of the urban water system. The case study highlights the need to recognise these interactions in order to provide safe and sustainable urban water services. The paper then presents ongoing research on development of integrated urban water modelling tool that allows an integrated approach to urban water services. By applying an IUWMapproach it is possible to satisfy the water and sanitation needs of a community at the lowest cost to society whilst minimising environmental and social impacts.

Knowledge uptake by technical professionals and decision-makers for developmental water services Part 1: Methodology, knowledge and context

While significant knowledge appears to be available on developmental water services (a term for service provision, to meet developmental objectives, with an emphasis on poor communities, in which a range of factors other than purely technical factors are addressed), there appears to be insufficient uptake of this knowledge (meaning the acquisition, comprehension and application in context) by technical professionals and decision-makers responsible for service provision, as evidencedby persistent service delivery backlogs and poor sustainability. This investigation developed and documented an exploratory methodology based primarily on in-depth interviews and a literature review which enabled the collection of evidence and development of a ‘first pass’ typology of knowledge, context and individual competencies with respect to developmental water services. This paper addresses the aspects of knowledge and context. Individual competencies are addressed in thecompanion paper (Part 2). With respect to knowledge, the investigation found that while there is a lot of information readily available in the sectoron the provision of water services to meet developmental objectives, what appears to be weak or missing is information on how to apply this information in context. With respect to context, the investigation established a simple preliminary framework which described the combination of political and technical disciplines in a unified approach, and the translation of this into the bureaucracy. On the evidence of the in-depth interviews, the contextual aspects of developmental water services, described by the above framework – and, in particular, the workings of the bureaucracy – would appear to constitute the major challenge facing high-level technical professionals and decision-makers in the provision and sustainability of water services. More generally, the investigation established that for effective provision of water services within a developmental context, there is a close relationship between the three components of knowledge, context and individual competencies; andthat it is difficult to address any one of the three components without reference to the other two.

Integrated Catchment Value Systems

Historic models of conservation are being superseded by the integration of ecological, economic and social dimensions into a simultaneously sustainable and supportive whole. This transition is evident as South Africa evolves from an apartheid history to novel governance including the equitable, sustainable and efficient use of water within an arid and increasingly climate-challenged landscape. The concept of ‘value chains’, established in industrial and government thinking, has been applied to wa-ter issues. We explore and extend ‘value chain’ thinking to cover various important dimensions of water management, taking account of both developed-world assumptions and developing world realities. This analysis exposes the limitations of linear ‘value chains’, and the need to join them up into cyclic sys-tems if they are to protect or improve the capacity of water systems to support the sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing of people dependent upon diverse ecosystem services within catchments. Informed by practical work by the authors in catchments within South Africa, we develop an integrated catchment value system model to support action research dialogues for the delivery of sustainable water ser-vices.

Essential Elements in the Development of Sustainable Water Services

The world has changed and reform of the water sector is necessary to meet the growing challenges. It is argued that sustainable water services are unobtainable without consideration of the following elements: separation of delivery of services from the policy function; viable scale of operations; integrated planning; finance and cost recovery to avoid general subsidies; a change from general subsidies to those targeted on the poor; transparency and public participation and some form of independent scrutiny with above all effective leadership and management. The public-private argument is unproductive and energies should be focussed on the fundamental reforms. Suppliers to utilities can be most effective working in partnership to achieve win-win situations.

Poverty Reduction Strategies

The links between access to safe water and poverty alleviation are multifaceted, but can be realized only if water supplies are sustained. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have been developed by many low-income countries in conjunction with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and describe each country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programmes to promote growth and reduce poverty. An analysis of PRSPs in sub-Saharan Africa revealed insufficient attention to water and rural development and identified three common themes in the pursuit of reduced poverty: trade liberalization, decentralization and privatization; each of which poses opportunities, but also considerable threats, to the development of sustainable rural water services. An additional theme is that of community management of water services, which is prescribed by many PRSPs and related national sectoral strategies, yet has failed to deliver satisfactory levels of sustainability. PRSPs are designed to promote growth and reduce poverty, yet many of their essential ingredients threaten to reduce the sustainability of rural water services and thus hinder rather than promote development and poverty alleviation in rural Africa.

Strategies to close water supply and demand gap

The growing water and sanitation crisis in the world calls for enormous efforts from water professionals as well as economic and political leaders. The climate change contributes to the acuteness of the problem, with dryer areas in some parts of the world and severe floods and rains in other parts. The European Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP) is an industry driven organisation aiming to strengthen the potential for technological innovation and the competitiveness of the European Water Industry but is also a response to global challenges and regional demands to ensure safe, secure and sustainable water and sanitation services for the benefit of industry, the society and the environment. The supply of electrical energy has to be carefully considered as a pre-requisite for water supply and sanitation. The production of biogas can be significantly increased by using instrumentation and control. The use of monitoring and control has wide consequences for safe and reliable water supply and sanitation.

Water and sanitation committees for sustainable service delivery in Ghana: the case of Nanumba north district, Northern region, Ghana

The achievement of the targets in terms of water and sanitation coverage in Ghana depends to a large extent on the establishment of institutions like Water and Sanitation Committees (WATSAN) for effective operation and maintenance of the water and sanitation facilities. This paper is based on the assessment of WATSAN in the Nanumba North District in the Northern Region of Ghana, where considerable investment in the sector has been made. The study established, among others, that the operations of the WATSAN were limited in terms of scope and effectiveness mainly due to their limited financial strength. It revealed that the institutional environment within which WATSAN operate as well as their modus operandi determined the communities' response to the maintenance and service delivery challenges. In view of these it is recommended that the institutional framework and composition of WATSAN be strengthened and scaled upwards to the District Assembly and the members should be financially rewarded from the proceeds of user fees so that they can effectively ensure sustainable water and sanitation services delivery. These measures are in line with the principles of the new public management strategies for public service delivery. Journal of Science and Technology(Ghana) Vol. 27 (1) 2007: pp. 90-101

Objectives and achievements of the European water supply and sanitation technology platform (WSSTP): a review

The European Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP) is an industry driven organisation aiming to strengthen the potential for technological innovation and the competitiveness of the European Water Industry. In response to global challenges and regional demands a strategy has been proposed to ensure safe, secure and sustainable water and sanitation services for the benefit of industry, the society and the environment. Integrated Water Resources Management is used as a guiding principle. Water supply, wastewater treatment (sanitation), river basin management and concerns of regulators, financing institutions and the civil society are the key elements of a system to be sustainably managed. Decision makers of the private and the public sector are to understand that investment in research, technology development and implementation of innovation is an important element in the process of securing economic prosperity, social stability and functioning of the ecological systems which we as human beings are a part of. A hierarchic, practice oriented structure is proposed to organize and govern research and technology development in Europe. Research will be organized within the framework of thematically designed pilot programmes containing a distinct number of implementation cases to execute close-to-reality research.

Many Ps Needed for Sustainable Water Services

This research note discusses the commonly used concept of public-private partnerships (PPPs) promoted particularly by international financial bodies in water and sanitation services during the past few years. The article argues that the scope of PPPs, which now includes only private operators, should be expanded. The article proposes a related list of policies, principles, and practices with selected priorities for viable and sustainable water and sanitation services. They must be assessed in a long-term perspective rather than in a historical vacuum.

Determinants of households' intention to pay for improved water services: an application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

Providing a sustainable and improved water service to the increasing urban population across the developing world remains one of the biggest challenges towards meeting the water target set out in the millennium development goals. Increasingly, the application of marketing principles to water services is being promoted as an essential requirement for providing a sustainable water service. Within the sector, marketing improved water is commonly geared towards the health benefits. However, a recent study raises doubts about the effectiveness of this approach. In this study, the theory of reasoned action was employed in examining the factors that underpin the behaviour of the urban poor towards paying for improved water services. The findings show that both perceived social pressure and household’s attitude have similar importance in predicting and explaining households’ intention to pay for improved water services. Concern for a more comfortable life was the most important predictor of households’ attitude, while ‘the family’ was the most important referent group. The study showed that there is scope for marketing improved water services using a social marketing approach. However, focusing on hygiene-related benefits is unlikely to have a significant influence on the urban poor’s intention to pay for improved water services.

Use of a hydrotechnical infrastructure (Alqueva Dam) to regulate planktonic assemblages in the Guadiana estuary: Basis for sustainable water and ecosystem services management

The phytoplankton and zooplankton assemblages in the Guadiana estuary (south Portugal) were compared in two contrasting hydrologic years, characterized by high and low freshwater discharges. Changes in salinity, nutrients and turbidity, which were mainly due to the changes in freshwater input, had an important influence on the structure of the planktonic assemblages. Nevertheless, coastal upwelling can also influence the productivity of the lower estuarine area during short periods both in winter and in summer. In 2000, a short-term freshwater pulse during May (average 126.46 m 3 s −1) was markedly beneficial; phytoplanktonic diversity increased, and this caused an increase in zooplanktonic diversity. As phyto-zooplankton coupling in these systems is an important regulator of processes in the trophic web, changes in the dominant groups can have consequences on water quality, especially on the occurrence of toxic plankton blooms. Modelling simulations indicate that a day discharge of 50 m 3 s −1, every week during critical periods, such as summer/autumn, could be enough to avoid cyanobacteria blooms. Since freshwater “pulses” can be managed by operating the freshwater release from hydrotechnical structures, understanding the relationships between the periodicity and magnitude of inflow pulse events and the estuarine ecosystem structure and healthy functioning is a crucial step towards the development of management modelling tools, as proposed in this study.

Global challenges in water, sanitation and health

The year 2005 marks the beginning of the "International Decade for Action: Water for Life" and renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Currently, UNICEF and WHO estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supplies and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the MDGs will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. We review five major challenges to providing safe water and sanitation on a global basis: (1) contamination of water in distribution systems, (2) growing water scarcity and the potential for water reuse and conservation, (3) implementing innovative low-cost sanitation systems, (4) providing sustainable water supplies and sanitation for megacities, and (5) reducing global and regional disparities in access to water and sanitation and developing financially sustainable water and sanitation services.

Pro-poor concessions for sustainable water services

Most of the billions of people without drinking water or sanitation are very poor. While private-sector companies are becoming increasingly involved with infrastructure provision in developing countries, their contracts for water and sanitation services tend to forget the social aspects of providing services to poor people. As such, public–private partnerships in particularly poor countries are unlikely to be sustainable in the longer term and UN targets for improvements will fail to be met. Based on a four-year research project in Asia, Africa and Latin America, this paper explains how concession contracts need to be more suited to the needs, resources and aspirations of local impoverished communities—in other words, to be more pro-poor.

Workshop 1 (synthesis): systems for sustainable urban water services

The systems approach is absolutely essential to secure sustainability in urban water services. The financing dimension is critical; fragmented institutions are a great barrier, hindering a systems approach; recycling of water and nutrients is vital for food production and livelihood improvements; effective knowledge transfer about innovative approaches to sanitation is essential to share success stories and failures.

The status of water demand management in selected cities of southern Africa

As a result of the rapid rate of urbanisation throughout Africa, many African cities face mounting challenges of providing their increasing populations with adequate and sustainable water services. Water demand management (WDM) offers a sustainable solution to water woes experienced in most cities in the southern Africa region. The region is characterised by frequent droughts, floods and erratic, unevenly distributed rainfall. Meanwhile nearly half of the southern Africa’s 200 million inhabitants do not have access to safe water and sanitation. This paper makes an assessment of the status of WDM in eight cities in the region based on published data and reports. It provides a basis of benchmarking the progress and success in WDM programmes by using selected key performance indicators. Gross unaccounted-for-water (UAW) is used as a crude measure of WDM good practice. From the eight selected case studies, Windhoek, Bulawayo and Hermanus have achieved considerable success in water use efficiency, implementing WDM programmes and recording UAW values of less than 20%, whilst Johannesburg; Maputo; Maseru; Lusaka and Mutare cannot account for about 40–60% of the water introduced into the distribution system. WDM projects require some key performance indicators which need to be recorded systematically by water supply agencies to enable a consistent monitoring and evaluation of programme. Finally for WDM to succeed, a new breed of professionals with multi-disciplinary skills is required as well as training of operatives, i.e. technicians, plumbers and meter readers.

Rouse Hill and Picton Reuse Schemes: innovative approaches to large-scale reuse

Driven by concerns centred on the potential impacts of new development on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, the management of effluent from Sewage Treatment Plants is a growing issue for regulators, communities and Sydney Water Corporation. Conventional users of recycled water such as golf courses, parks and on-site uses are making way for more innovative and sustainable approaches. Rouse Hill Recycled Water Plant and the Picton Agricultural Reuse Schemes are two examples where Sydney Water has adopted a different approach to water recycling. With both schemes now in operation, demand for the product has surpassed expectations and has already begun to exceed current availability. Faced with the option of expanding the schemes in the near future, SWC is continuing to look for new ways of providing sustainable water services to the people of Sydney.

Evaluating integrated urban water systems alternatives for Brisbane, Australia

The Brazil Development Study investigates the feasibility of alternative approaches to providing sustainable water services to a 226 ha mixed residential and industrial greenfield development within the city of Brisbane, Australia. The alternatives include techniques such a the use of rainwater tanks, water use efficiency, a local wastewater treatment plant for recycling of reclaimed water and composting toilets amongst others. This paper evaluates a series of urban development scenarios against the objectives of the study. The insights gained into the drivers for cost and environmental impact for this particular site are discussed as well as a number of issues of concern and challenges to Council and the community.