Making the most of the water we have : the soft path approach to water management

Brooks, D.B., Brandes, O.M. and Gurman, S. (2009). Making the most of the water we have : the soft path approach to water management. London, UK, Earthscan. 272 p. ISBN 9781844077540
Price: £49.95
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Publisher’s description:

“Demand for water is one of the major challenges of the current century, but past approaches are no longer sufficient. Based on the “soft path” approach to the energy sector, a transition is now under way to a soft path for water. This approach starts by ensuring that ecosystem needs for water are satisfied and then undertakes a radical approach to reducing human uses of water by economic and social incentives, including open decision-making, water markets and equitable pricing, and the application of super-efficient technology, all applied in ways that avoid jeopardizing quality of life.

This book is the first to present and apply the water soft path approach. It has three aims: to bring to a wider audience the concept and the potential of water soft paths; to demonstrate that soft path analysis is analytical and practical, and not just “eco-dreaming”; and to indicate that soft paths are not only conceptually attractive but that they can be made economically and politically feasible. These goals are reflected by the scope of the book which is organized around the three aspects of any soft path: a vision of a sustainable water future based on the soft path concept; an analytic method to define alternative routes to get to that future (most literally, the soft paths), as illustrated by case studies in Canada and elsewhere: and a tool kit for planners and other practitioners”.

Chapter 17 is on “Water Soft Path Thinking in Developing Countries” with examples from South Africa, India, and Middle East and North Africa.

Post-construction support and sustainability in community-managed rural water supply

Bakalian, A. and Wakeman, W. (eds) (2009). Post-construction support and sustainability in community-managed rural water supply : case studies in Peru, Bolivia, and Ghana. (Water Sector Board discussion paper series ; no. 14). Washington, DC, USA, Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership (BNWP), World Bank. xvii, 114 p. : 2 boxes, 1 fig., 38 tab. Incl. ref.

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This volume reports the main findings from a multi-country research project on the performance of rural water supply systems in developing countries. Starting in 2004, the research investigated how the provision of support to communities after the construction of a rural water supply project affected project performance in the medium term. Information was collected from households, village water committees, focus groups of village residents, system operators, and key informants in 400 rural communities in Bolivia, Ghana, and Peru; in total, community water supply issues were discussed with approximately 10,000 individuals in these communities.

Surprisingly, the great majority of the village water systems were found to be performing well.

Positive findings were:

• The demand-driven, community-management model seems to be working, at least in the medium term
• Communities had been involved in pre-construction planning and helped with capital costs
• Community water supply projects were still working
• Villages used post-construction support (PCS) from wherever they could get it
• Consumer satisfaction was high

Negative findings were:

• Households were still using unprotected water sources
• The finances of many village water committees were in poor shape
• Generally, more analysis is required to assess the impact of PCS on sustainability and satisfaction

These findings seem to support the concept of the demand-driven community management model—that communities can and should take full responsibility for their systems. The unsolicited PCS activities that appear most promising are those that help communities to renew and further develop their capacities: post-construction training for system operators and non-technical support visits to help village water committees with administrative functions or water use disputes.

However, it was found that that even those communities whose cost-recovery systems seem to be meeting program objectives—by paying 5–10 percent of capital costs and collecting tariffs to cover operation, maintenance, and repairs—are not moving toward a financially sustainable future in which they can either (1) replace infrastructure when it reaches the end of its economic life, or (2) expand system capacity to accommodate population and economic growth.

In a significant number of villages, the water committees are not collecting tariffs at all, or are collecting too little revenue from households to cover the financial costs of major repairs—much less the costs of system expansion or capital replacement.

The water supply systems in the communities in the study sample are not financially sustainable without new infusions of capital relatively soon—both to replace existing infrastructure and to provide for growth. The sector’s current capital financing model—and the post-construction activities of NGOs and other actors—seem to create a moral hazard that will undermine the principle of community self-reliance in the post-construction phase and discourage communities from making their own investments in water infrastructure to support economic growth.

Achieving long-term financial sustainability in these systems will require better coordination of the policies of NGOs with government and with each other seem. One important role for NGOs in the future could be as catalysts for post-construction support (e.g., training and/or locally-based models for raising capital), rather than as dispensers of subsidies for communities that cannot manage to repair their own water projects.

In summary, the demand-driven, community-management planning model has come a long way towards a working model in the rural water sector. The next frontier seems to be the design of a policy framework that will enable communities to handle the twin challenges of system rehabilitation and expansion.

Water Information Network South Africa on Ning

Water Information Network – South Africa (WIN-SA) has opened a social network site on Ning.com. The site offers its nearly 100 members (as of 22 June 2009), mostly from South Africa,  the opportunity to participate in forums, start groups, to blog, and post event announcements, photos and videos.

WIN-SA is a network of organisations focusing on improving knowledge sharing in the water and sanitation sector.

Go to the web site

Water By Numbers – Peter Gleick’s blog

Pacific Institute president and international water expert Dr. Peter Gleick has started a blog “about the water challenges facing California, the West, and our world” in April 2009. In his blog Gleick explores “the threats and challenges to our freshwater resources” and discusses “available, viable solutions to those threats, drawing from not only [his] experiences and viewpoint, but also by way of numbers”. In each post Gleick includes “an important, unusual, or newsworthy water number” to highlight some piece of the water issue.

The number is Gleick’s first post was the “one billion people without access to improved, safe, or affordable drinking water”.

Go to the Water By Numbers blog.

RULE : reforming water governance

Iza, A. and Stein, R. (eds) (2009). RULE : reforming water governance. Gland, Switzerland, IUCN. 130 p. ISBN 978-2-8317-1027-3

This toolkit will introduce readers to the central role played by policy, law and institutions in designing and implementing good governance for water resources. It will guide users through approaches to reforming water governance, including useful mechanisms for incorporating environmental considerations into water laws and policies. It is intended for use by water professionals, working in water management, who do not have a law background.

Contents

Chapter 1. Creating Water Governance Capacity
1.1 Managing water effectively
1.2 Importance of policy and law
1.3 Water governance capacity
1.4 Organization of RULE
1.5 The water governance capacity checklist

Chapter 2. Linking Policies to Realities
2.1 The role of water policy
2.2 Vision for the future
2.3 Water policy principles
2.4 Process principles for water policy
2.5 Context of water policy reform
2.6 Typology of water policy and planning reforms
2.7 Linking policies to realities: general principles
2.8 Reforming water policy: practical steps

Chapter 3. Transforming Policy into Law
3.1 Features of water law
3.2 The context, role and reach of water resources legislation
3.3 Water allocation
3.4 Water quality protection
3.5 Incorporating conservation into water law
3.6 Prescribing institutional functions
3.7 Weaknesses of existing legal systems
3.8 Reforming water law: practical steps

Chapter 4. Building a Sound Institutional Mechanism
4.1 Building governmental water institutions
4.2 Types of water institutions
4.3 Four levels of water institutions
4.4 Designing institutions for IWRM
4.5 Funding water institutions
4.6 Public participation and civil society organizations
4.7 Private-sector roles in water management
4.8 Practical steps and indicative principles

Chapter 5. Implementing Water Governance Capacity
5.1 Enabling implementation
5.2 Regulations
5.3 Monitoring and information management mechanisms
5.4 Compliance and enforcement
5.5 RULE: A framework for effective water governance

Water safety plan manual

Bartram, J. … [et al] (2009). Water safety plan manual: step-by-step risk management for drinking-water suppliers. Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization . 108 p. ISBN 978-92-4-156263-8
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In 2004, the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality recommended that water suppliers develop and implement “Water Safety Plans” (WSPs) in order to systematically assess and manage risks. Since this time, governments and regulators, water suppliers and practitioners have increasingly embraced this approach, but they have also requested further guidance. This workbook answers this call by describing how to develop and implement a WSP in clear and practical terms.

The Manual, co-published with the International Water Association (IWA)  is divided into 11 Modules, each representing a key step in the WSP development and implementation process. Every Module is divided into three sections: ‘Overview’, ‘Examples and Tools’, and ‘Case Studies’. The case studies were drawn from WSP initiatives in Australia, the Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC), and the United Kingdom.

List of modules:

Module 1. Assemble the WSP team
Module 2. Describe the water supply system
Module 3. Identify hazards and hazardous events and assess the risks
Module 4. Determine and validate control measures, reassess and prioritize the risks
Module 5. Develop, implement and maintain an improvement/upgrade plan
Module 6. Define monitoring of the control measures
Module 7. Verify the effectiveness of the WSP
Module 8. Prepare management procedures
Module 9. Develop supporting programmes
Module 10. Plan and carry out periodic review of the WSP
Module 11. Revise the WSP following an incident

Climate change adaptation in the water sector

Ludwig, F., Kabat, P., Schaik, H. van and Valk, M. van der (2009). Climate change adaptation in the water sector. London, UK, Earthscan. 304 p. ISBN 9781844076529
Price: £49.95
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This book offers a compendium of climate adaptation strategies in the water sector for students, water managers and decision makers. The book consists of two parts: the first part describes the general issues and is written mainly by the editors of the book and the second part contains specific case studies. These are drawn from a wide range of contrasting countries, including Australia, Thailand, the Netherlands, Germany, Philippines, South Africa, and Yemen.

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Climate Change and Water

• The Art of Predicting Climate Variability and Change
• Climate Change Scenarios at the Global and Local Scale
• The Impacts of Climate Change on Water
• Managing Water Under Current Climate Variability
• Using Seasonal Climate Forecasts for Water Management
• Adapting to Climate Change in the Water Sector
• Climate Proofing

Part II: Case Studies

• Adaptation to Climate Change and Social Justice: Challenges for Flood and Disaster Management in Thailand
• Water and Spatial Planning in The Netherlands: Living with Water in the Context of Climate Change
• Climate Change and Alluvial Aquifiers in Arid Regions – Examples from Yemen
• A Water Utility’s Approach to Addressing the Potential Impacts of Climate Change
• Adaptation Measures for the Metropolitan Water Supply for Perth, Western Australia
• Benefits and Costs of Measures for Coping with Water and Climate Change: Berg River Basin, South Africa
• Institutional Adaptation to Climate Change: Current Status and Future Strategies in the Elbe Basin, Germany
• The Use of Seasonal Climate Forecasts Within a Shared Reservoir System: The Case of Angat Reservoir, Philippines

Index

Slow sand filtration: creating clean, safe water

Slow sand filtration is a filtration system for relatively small scale waterworks. Since it is cheaper to install and maintain than rapid sand filtration which is current mainstream in Japan, it can be more suitable for developing countries depending on the conditions.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has produced a multimedia-based learning package “Slow sand filtration: creating clean, safe water” in English and Japanese, consisting of a video and reference materials.

The video (26 min) can be viewed in 6 parts. Parts 1-5 provide background information on large-scale and small-scale application of slow sand filtration technology in Japan. Part 6 is about a JICA project in Sierra Leone.

The reference documents are on an introduction to Ecological Purification System [5.7 MB] (new concept and new name of slow sand filtration) and a report on the Water Supply Management System in Kambia District project [15.6 MB] in Sierra Leone.

WaterAid water source options poster

WaterAid has produced a new poster resource that rates different water supply technology options in relation to their relative capital cost, operational cost, water quantity supplied and water quality supplied.

The poster also provides information on the situations in which certain water supply technologies are most applicable.

Levels of appropriateness are colour coded based on different combinations of the above variables.

The resource can be printed as a poster on A4, A3 or A2. You can download it here:

Water source options – a comparison ( PDF 93KB)

Water Integrity Network Case Information Sheets

Corruption in the water sector both puts at risk the lives of billions of people and slows development. Yet, there are many individuals, organisations and initiatives worldwide that have developed creative and effective ways to enhance water integrity. The Case Information Sheets are an initiative to support local action and disseminate this information on a global level. They are authored by individuals and groups who have suffered from the negative impacts of corruption on water provision and therefore initiated successful local actions to improve their situation.

There is a world map showing the locations where cases are from.

Case Information Sheets can be submitted online. Selected contributions receive an award of Euro 300.

So far the following Case Information Sheets have been published:

• INDIA: Corruption Prevention in a Community Management Sanitation Programme in Kerala
• INDONESIA: Fighting Corruption at the Grassroots Through the Kecamatan Development Project
• COLOMBIA: Legislative Efforts to Prevent Corruption in Large-Scale Water Projects
• COLOMBIA: Private Sector Anti-Corruption Agreement in the Pipe Manufacturing Industry
• LESOTHO: A Precedent for Prosecution of Grand Corruption Committed by Multinational Companies
• BOLIVIA: Improving Transparency and Accountability in a Public Water Utility With Citizen Participation
• COLOMBIA: Regulation of Public Utilities- Organisation, Information and Transparency
• UGANDA: Citizens Action for Accountable WATSAN Services in the Slums of Kawempe – Kampala City