Pro-Poor Strategies in Urban Water Provisioning
Pro-Poor Strategies in Urban Water Provisioning

Author: Akosua Sarpong Boakye-Ansah

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2021-02-25

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 100034598X

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Water utilities are the main instrument for countries to achieve universal service coverage. In pursuing universal service coverage, water utilities have turned to pro-poor water services to extend water services in low-income areas. This thesis discusses the use of pro-poor water services by water utilities in Kenya, with the intention of highlighting the dimensions of the approach that require attention of policy makers and practitioners when engaging with the concept. Based on the analysis of the technologies, financial and organisational arrangements associated with the pro-poor concept, this thesis shows that the use of pro-poor strategies allows water utilities to reduce the risks of servicing low-income areas while still claiming to fulfil their mandate of providing access to all in a commercially viable manner. The analysis also shows that rather than a decision of the water utility, the choice for pro-poor strategies emerges as the result of a consensus or compromise between the different actors that constitute the broader institutional environment in which water utilities operate. The thesis concludes that while pro-poor water services may serve the interests of water utilities and other stakeholders, in the absence of well-directed subsidies and proper monitoring they will not result in low-income households benefiting from more affordable and reliable access to water.

Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities
Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities

Author: Un-Habitat

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1136546928

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'This is surely the most impressive and important publication to come out of the UN system for many years.' Peter Adamson, founder, New Internationalist, and author and researcher of UNICEF's The State of the World's Children from 1980 to 1995 The world's governments agreed at the Millennium Summit to halve, by 2015, the number of people who lack access to safe water. With rapidly growing urban populations the challenge is immense. Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities is a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the problems and how they can be addressed. This influential publication by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) sets out in detail the scale of inadequate provision of water and sanitation. It describes the impacts on health and economic performance, showing the potential gains of remedial action; it analyses the proximate and underlying causes of poor provision and identifies information gaps affecting resource allocation; it outlines the consequences of further deterioration; and it explains how resources and institutional capacities - public, private and community - can be used to deliver proper services through integrated water resource management.

Urban Water Supply and Governance in India
Urban Water Supply and Governance in India

Author: Satyapriya Rout

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-15

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9811638195

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This book investigates institutional dimensions of urban water supply in India, with a specific focus on institutional capabilities to provide drinking water to urban households in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner. This book has been developed through empirical research within the context of growing urbanisation and increasing water needs of Indian cities, and the wider developmental goal of achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all – as envisaged in goal 6 of the SDGs. This study revolves around three important aspects of urban water supply and governance. Firstly, it attempts to understand household water service delivery scenarios in urban India, drawing from case studies based on our household survey in four cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kochi and Hyderabad. Secondly, it examines the question of existing socio-economic inequality and access to water in an urban context in India. While dealing with the issue of inequality and access to water, it attempts to explore the question of whether access to water and water scarcity is socially neutral; whilst also analysing the mechanisms employed by the urban poor to manage their daily water needs. Thirdly, this book explores the role of institutions for efficient and effective delivery of water in urban India. The institutional analysis from a comparative perspective provides important insights to guide current reforms in domestic water supply in India, especially in a neo-liberal context. The book is a valuable resource for academicians, policy makers and practitioners involved in water governance in general and domestic (drinking) water supply in particular. Besides, it is of great interest to those working in the area of urban development, urban planning and household water management. The book is an outcome of a collaborative research project by the authors sponsored jointly by University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi and UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI).

Cities on a Finite Planet
Cities on a Finite Planet

Author: Sheridan Bartlett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-14

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1317291964

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Cities on a Finite Planet: Transformative responses to climate change shows how cities can combine high quality living conditions, resilience to climate change, disaster risk reduction and contributions to mitigation/low carbon development. It also covers the current and potential contribution of cities to avoiding dangerous climate change and is the first book with an in-depth coverage of how cities and their governments, citizens and civil society organizations can combine these different agendas, based on careful city-level analyses. The foundation for the book is detailed city case studies on Bangalore, Bangkok, Dar es Salaam, Durban, London, Manizales, Mexico City, New York and Rosario. Each of these was led by authors who contributed to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment and are thus acknowledged as among the world’s top specialists in this field. This book highlights where there is innovation and progress in cities and how this was achieved. Also where there is little progress and no action and where there is no capacity to act. It also assesses the extent to which cities can address the Sustainable Development Goals within commitments to also dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this, it highlights how much progress on these different agendas depends on local governments and their capacities to work with their low-income populations.

The United Nations world water development report 2015: water for a sustainable world
The United Nations world water development report 2015: water for a sustainable world

Author: Connor, Richard

Publisher: UNESCO Publishing

Published: 2015-03-23

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 9231000713

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The United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) is hosted and led by UNESCO. WWAP brings together the work of 31 UN-Water Members as well as 37 Partners to publish the United Nations World Water Development Report (WWDR) series. Under the theme Water for Sustainable Development, the WWDR 2015 has been prepared as a contribution from UN-Water to the discussions surrounding the post-2015 framework for global sustainable development. Highlighting water's unique and often complex role in achieving various sustainable development objectives, the WWDR 2015 is addressed to policy- and decision-makers inside and outside the water community, as well as to anyone with an interest in freshwater and its many life-giving benefits. The report sets an aspirational yet achievable vision for the future of water towards 2050 by describing how water supports healthy and prosperous human communities, maintains well functioning ecosystems and ecological services, and provides a cornerstone for short and long-term economic development. It provides an overview of the challenges, issues and trends in terms of water resources, their use and water-related services like water supply and sanitation. The report also offers, in a rigorous yet accessible manner, guidance about how to address these challenges and to seize the opportunities that sound water management provides in order to achieve and maintain economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Privatizing Water
Privatizing Water

Author: Karen Bakker

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0801467004

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Water supply privatization was emblematic of the neoliberal turn in development policy in the 1990s. Proponents argued that the private sector could provide better services at lower costs than governments; opponents questioned the risks involved in delegating control over a life-sustaining resource to for-profit companies. Private-sector activity was most concentrated—and contested—in large cities in developing countries, where the widespread lack of access to networked water supplies was characterized as a global crisis. In Privatizing Water, Karen Bakker focuses on three questions: Why did privatization emerge as a preferred alternative for managing urban water supply? Can privatization fulfill its proponents' expectations, particularly with respect to water supply to the urban poor? And, given the apparent shortcomings of both privatization and conventional approaches to government provision, what are the alternatives? In answering these questions, Bakker engages with broader debates over the role of the private sector in development, the role of urban communities in the provision of "public" services, and the governance of public goods. She introduces the concept of "governance failure" as a means of exploring the limitations facing both private companies and governments. Critically examining a range of issues—including the transnational struggle over the human right to water, the "commons" as a water-supply-management strategy, and the environmental dimensions of water privatization—Privatizing Water is a balanced exploration of a critical issue that affects billions of people around the world.

Water Justice
Water Justice

Author: Rutgerd Boelens

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1107179084

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An overview of critical conceptual approaches to water justice, illustrated with global historic and contemporary case studies of socio-environmental struggles.

Urban Drought
Urban Drought

Author: Bhaswati Ray

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-12-30

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 9811089477

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This book presents water insecurity issues in urban areas while developing a water security index and explores the innovative approaches to water development and management with examples from Asian cities. The urban water crisis is a global phenomenon, but it is more obvious in the megacities of the developing world. Urban drought, although not a familiar term, will pose a significant threat to humankind in the near future, especially in the context of increasing population in cities. Many cities are already unable to provide safe, clean water for their citizens. Some of the world’s largest cities depend heavily on groundwater for their water supply. It is unlikely that dependence on aquifers, which take many years to recharge, will be sustainable. As urban populations grow, water use will need to shift from agriculture to municipal and industrial uses, making decisions about allocating between different sectors difficult. Inefficient water-use practices by households and industries, fragmented management of water between sectors and institutions, climate-induced water shortages, environmental degradation of water sources, and inadequate use of alternate sources are also issues of major concern. Despite recent advances in the literature, there exists a considerable gap in attempting an integrated water-resource management approach. Covering all aspects of urban drought and water insecurity, this book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, academics, policy makers, and development practitioners.