Maintenance Of Water Infrastructure Research Articles

How do irrigation district managers deal with climate change risks? Considering experiences, tipping points, and risk normalization in northern Italy

Agriculture is one of the most sensitive and vulnerable activities to climate variations; climate change impacts crop yield, soil processes, water availability, and pest dynamic. Farmers are on the front lines of climate change-induced stressors, shifts, and shocks, having to provide solutions as planners, performers, and innovators working under challenging and uncertain risk conditions. Extensive research has been carried out to deepen farmers’ behavior on risks posed by climate change. However, less attention was paid to irrigation district managers, even though their essential role in guaranteeing hydraulic safety, ensuring water supply, even as on-site observers of farmers’ behavior. This paper seeks to uncover the attitudes and actions of irrigation districts managers towards climate change, and their ability to gather significant information on the climate experiences of farmers in the Lombardy region, Italy. Employing a mix of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, the exploratory approach gathered insights from the managers of the 12 public irrigation districts tasked with governing irrigation development and water management in the region. The study reveals that managers are cognizant of the shifting climate caused by warmer temperatures and extreme weather events, implementing both hard (e.g. water infrastructure maintenance, water storage) and soft (climate and weather services) adaptation countermeasures. Through their own experiences, managers brought to light the driving factors behind farmers’ willingness to adopt water-saving techniques or adapt their crops, despite facing obstacles (e.g. financial investment, institutional support). In addition, the identification of tipping points related to water scarcity and security is coupled with managers and farmers’ trust in technological solutions to partially counteract risk normalization. In line with the findings, suggestions were put forth to enhance managers’ adaptive capacity.

Challenges during installation and maintenance of water delivery infrastructure: a citizen perspective

The installation and maintenance of water infrastructure in South African cities poses a challenge to communities, municipalities, and installation contractors, who face problems such as inadequate access to homes, traffic jams, inadequately barricaded trenches, leaking water pipes, water supply cut-offs, vandalism, and theft of water. The research problem, therefore, involves an inadequate understanding of what drives these problems and how to mitigate them through better management. The aim of this study was to investigate the challenges of managing water infrastructure as perceived by the citizens of a South African municipality. The study was a descriptive and cross-sectional survey, with data collected, via a literature derived, emailed questionnaire, from a self-selected non-probability sample of 402 City of Tshwane residents. Analysis, via SPSS Version 27, used descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that both the municipality and the contractors contributed to the challenges experienced by citizens, with maintenance challenges being more serious than installation challenges. Municipal and political challenges were the main drivers, with political ownership of construction companies and political interference being the biggest problems. The findings contributed to a better understanding of the challenges inhibiting effective installation and maintenance of water infrastructure, and are important to the municipality, and the community at large, because they contribute to a better understanding of service delivery from the citizens’ perspectives.

Multicriteria Decision Making and Water Infrastructure: An Application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process for a Sustainable Ranking of Investments

The United Nations SDG6 goal of ensuring universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2030 will require increased investment in the rehabilitation and maintenance of water infrastructure. In Italy, the water sector has not yet reached the performance of other European countries. The hierarchization of investments is essential for identifying priorities and efficiently allocating resources. This issue is part of the debate on the reconciliation of public and private needs in the management of water services. The present research proposes a model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Taking into account the design alternatives considered optimal that contribute to the resolution of territorial criticalities, the model organizes them in a ranking that indicates the chronological priorities to be respected in the investments to be made. The evaluation criteria are set in compliance with the norms defined by the National Authority (ARERA). The model is tested on a water manager in the Campania region. Among the main results, it is found that the two extremes of the ranking are shared between the two actors involved in the investment strategy (the private operator and public regulator). The model represents an effective tool for identifying shared planning strategies between public and private operators.

Determinants of User Satisfaction and the Implications on Collective Action in Demand-driven Water Governance in Rural Uganda

The devolution of water management from the state to user communities is usually based on the assumption that users are able and willing to take on the necessary responsibilities. Despite over a decade of implementing a demand-driven approach in rural water provision in Uganda, operation and maintenance of communal water infrastructure is still an uphill task. Using a mixed methods approach and a socio-ecological systems framework, this article shows the relationship between water user satisfaction and willingness to engage in collective action towards water provision. The article further presents factors influencing water users’ satisfaction under the demand-driven model of water governance. The results indicate a highly significant relationship between user satisfaction and willingness to contribute to operation and maintenance of water infrastructure. The explanatory variables influencing users’ satisfaction with water provision are categorised as institutional and biophysical factors. The analysis indicates that collective action is key for successful implementation of demand-driven model of water governance, but it cannot be assumed or taken for granted. Rather, it must be facilitated through fulfilling the needs and expectations of the beneficiaries as well as building robust self-governance local institutions.

Performance evaluation of water supply services in Chitungwiza: How water supply services mirrors poor governance and lack of management

Background: Provision of reliable water services is crucial for urban livelihood. In Chitungwiza, provision of water services has been deteriorating since the millennium with residents losing hope for better services. The poor supply of municipal water in Chitungwiza has led to a chronic ‘dry taps situation’ where household taps are dry from periods of several consecutive days to months.Aim: This article assesses the water supply challenges in Chitungwiza through performance evaluation of the water supply services.Setting: The study was conducted in 26 suburbs in the four residential zones of Chitungwiza Municipality.Methods: Performance evaluation of water supply services was carried out using seven performance indicators: coverage of water supply connection, extent of metering of water connections, presence of leakages, extent of non-revenue water, continuity of water supply, quality of water supplied and efficiency in redressal of customer complaints. Two hundred and ninety-eight semi-structured questionnaires were administered in four residential zones of Chitungwiza. Water distribution system surveillance and key informant interviews were also conducted.Results: The results indicate high non-revenue water, poor water infrastructure maintenance, lack of water investment leading to widespread leakages in the distribution system, poor water quality supply and unreliable services provision. A majority, 80.2%, rated the municipal water supply services as poor. To cope with this new reality, households in Chitungwiza implemented a ‘source switch’ to new sources.Conclusion: Household shallow wells were identified as the main adapting strategy with 51.7% households relying on wells despite concerns about the water quality of the wells. Chitungwiza municipality should implement structural reforms that allow the current water service provision to improve.

A review of public water infrastructure financing in the United States

AbstractThe delivery of clean drinking water and the treatment of wastewater are critical public services, and in the United States, they are provided by a complex system of federal, state, and local governments. The process of water treatment and delivery requires significant investment in infrastructure both for initial capital requirements as well as the on‐going maintenance and operating costs. The quality of drinking water in the United States is, on average, relatively high, but according to the American Water Works Association, an estimated $1 trillion is necessary to maintain and expand service to meet demands over the next 25 years. The water infrastructure needs in the United States require both immediate attention and long‐term solutions, and the dollar cost is climbing rapidly. It remains unclear, however, where these funds will come from and how they will be allocated. The goal of this paper is to review the portfolio of financing options that exist for public entities responsible for the construction and maintenance of water infrastructure in the United States, including the municipal bond market, state revolving loan funds, federal grant and loan programs, public–private partnerships, and recent financing innovations.This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Water, Health, and Sanitation Human Water > Value of Water Human Water > Water Governance

Examination of Preservation, Maintenance and Prevention from Corrosion in Water Cylinders

Reduction of water constructions and installations problems, improvement of construction life, provision, transference, distribution, purification and reservation of water are of the most important matters in urban culture due to the importance of drinkable water supply for cities and villages of the country, considering the increase of need in consumption of water supply. One of the basic troubles of industries and consumers in the whole country is the maintenance of water infrastructure and constructions which cost a fortune to construct and utilize. Through the stage of utilization, preservation of the facility is very important. Through this presentation, we take a look at the subject of corrosion in Water cylinders made of metal, concrete or mixed materials considering past experience. Corrosion is mostly due to an unsuitable environment. Such soluble compounds as sulfur, hydrogen, carbon dioxide etc. in the water accelerates the process of corrosion greatly.

Water, Infrastructure and Power: Contention and Resistance in Post‐colonial Cities of the South

Water, Infrastructure and Power: Contention and Resistance in Post‐colonial Cities of the South

Why infrastructure still matters: unravelling water reform processes in an uneven waterscape in rural Kenya

Since the 1980s, a major change took place in public policies for water resources management. Whereas before governments primarily invested in the development, operation and maintenance of water infrastructure and were mainly concerned with the distribution of water, in the new approach they mainly focus on managing water resources systems by stipulating general frameworks for water allocation. This paper studies the rationales used to justify the water reform process in Kenya and discusses how and to what extent these rationales apply to different groups of water users within Likii catchment in the central part of the country. Adopting a critical institutionalist's perspective, this paper shows how the water resource configurations in the catchment are constituted by the interplay between a normative policy model introduced in a plural institutional context and the disparate infrastructural options available to water users as result of historically produced uneven social relations. We argue that, to progressively redress the colonial legacy, direct investments in infrastructure for marginalized water users and targeting the actual (re)distribution of water to the users might be more effective than focusing exclusively on institutional reforms.

Congruence of appropriation and provision in collective water provision in Central Namibia

Achieving cooperation in natural resource management is always a challenge when incentives exist for an individual to maximise her short term benefits at the cost of a group. We study a public good social dilemma in water infrastructure provision on land reform farms in Namibia. In the context of the Namibian land reform, arbitrarily mixed groups of livestock farmers have to share the operation and maintenance of water infrastructure. Typically, water is mainly used for livestock production, and livestock numbers are subject to high fluctuations due to the given environmental conditions. Our paper assesses how alternative payment systems with differing congruence of provision and appropriation support the cooperation in the group given the ever-changing equilibria. In a first step, we conducted an exploratory overview of the social-ecological system of central Namibian land reform projects. The Social Ecological System (SES) Framework served as a guideline for this assessment ( Ostrom 2009 ). Taking the complexity of the cooperation situation into account, in the second step we designed a role-play that is based on a social-ecological simulation model. The role-play simulates the real-life decision situations of land reform beneficiaries wherein equilibria are permanently changing. This approach helped us to not only better understand the cooperation challenges of Namibian land reform beneficiaries, but also supported stakeholders in their decision making and institution building. Our study provides evidence to support that land reform beneficiaries increase their contributions as they own more livestock and as other group members increase their payments. Nevertheless, only groups with relatively homogeneous livestock endowments manage to agree on payment rules. Interestingly, the dominant rule is an “equal payment per farmer” and not a “payment per head of livestock”, though the latter would imply a higher congruence of provision and appropriation.

A methodology to determine the effectiveness of water demand management measures in South Africa

The aim of this project was to develop a methodology to determine the effectiveness of Water Demand Management (WDM) and Water Conservation (WC) measures in developing regions and countries. The project, which was sponsored by South Africa's Water Research Commission, involved a critical examination of those applicable local (South African) conditions that guide the development of the methodology. Some of the specific challenges identified included the practical definition of linkage between the principle of increasing the supply of water through the implementation of WDM/WC measures and the unlimited needs of users, a strong culture of non-payment for water which limits the impact of economic measures, the overall lack of programmes for the repair and maintenance of water infrastructure as well as the increasing shortage of skilled human resources. Several existing related methodologies were examined in order to provide a historic and conceptual framework for the research. Selected WDM/WC case studies, both locally in South Africa and internationally, have provided useful insight during the development of the methodology. A pragmatic and easy to understand consolidated methodology has been developed that takes cognisance of the objectives of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). The methodology is a consultative and consensus based approach assisted by numerous graphic based techniques, tools and examples.