Beyond Human Right vs. Commodity: Time to Realistically Assess Water Scarcity

The water resources community remains stuck in a futile debate of whether water constitutes a human right or a commodity, which is resolved through the content of General Comment 15: water constitutes a human right, which puts conditions on economic approaches to water and its commodification. Instead, it is time to address the issue of globally adopted misrepresentative water scarcity metrics that misleadingly show increasing conditions of scarcity, which risks biasing the argument towards the commodification of water. Redefining these metrics to portray hydrologic realities, will more precisely inform the formulation of water policies and help advance solutions to global water problems

Area selection for post-hoc impact evaluation of the delegated management model of urban water service delivery in Kisumu, Kenya

Background: delegated management, also known as a water operator partnership, is a model under which a utility delegates operational responsibility for urban water services to a small-scale provider. The model is currently operational in parts of Maputo(Mozambique), Arusha ( Tanzania), and Kisumu in Kenya. To date, studies of the impact of delegated management model have focused on expansion of services, pipeline breakages and supply interruptions, and revenue recovery, but have not considered its impacts on water quality and thereby ultimately health.Aim: this study therefore aims to evaluate the impact of delegated management on microbiological water quality at kiosks through to point-of-consumption in the home in off-grid neighbourhoods of Kisumu.Methods: this post hoc impact evaluation study will compare E. coli contamination of household stored water in a matched sample of Enumeration Areas (EA) under delegated management versus a control group. Characteristics of urban EAs under delegated management (including metered water connections per household; kiosks per capita; population density; proximity to sewerage lines; and probability of built-up land cover measured via Sentinel-2 satellite imagery) were collated within a GIS and compared with those not under delegated management using logistic regression. To minimise differences between EAs under delegated management and control EAs, a balanced sample of EAs will be selected using coarsened exact matching based on these characteristics. Within selected EAs, E. coli will be measured in water at kiosks, in vendors’ hand-carts, and in water stored by consumers, targeting 90 households in intervention and control groups. Final analysis will examine the effect of delegated management on E. coli in household stored water using logistic or multinomial regression, controlling for risk factors related to the vendor (e.g. vessel cleaning and handwashing), the household (e.g. water storage and handling practices), and the piped supply (e.g. adequate residual chlorine).Preliminary results: of 342 urban EAs in Kisumu County, the 16 under delegated management had significantly less built-up land cover (mean probability of built-up land cover 19.7% compared to 27.6% in comparison EAs, p=0.008). Examination of other EA characteristics indicated non-significant differences in mean population density and imbalance in their joint distribution, indicating the need to select comparable EAs for the control group. Final EA selection and fieldwork is ongoing.Conclusions: these preliminary findings suggest there are systematic differences between EAs under delegated management and those directly managed by the utility. Such differences need to be controlled for in developing evidence concerning the impact of delegated management on the quality of water services in Kisumu.<br/

Beyond barriers: the fluid roles young people adopt in water conflict and cooperation

International audienceMost people on this planet are under the age of 35. They have been raising their voices in discussions on climate change in recent years, while this is well documented, their roles in water cooperation are not. Drawing on examples from desk research, an online survey, and action research alongside young water leaders, this article seeks to map out various ways young people engage in water conflict and cooperation. This paper contributes to literature on water leadership by recognizing the fluid and adaptive roles of young people in water conflict and cooperation

On the use of household expenditure surveys to monitor mismanaged plastic waste from food packaging in low- and middle-income countries

Background: substantial increases in plastic production have resulted in plastics proliferating of in the environment, with subsequent seabed plastic deposition and ingestion by marine fauna. There is an urgent need to monitor mismanaged plastic waste from household consumption. Household expenditure survey analysis has quantified mismanaged plastic waste generated from household packaged (bottled or bagged) water consumption, but not from consumption of other products. Methods: to evaluate whether household expenditure surveys can quantify mismanaged waste from other widely consumed commodities, we quantify mismanaged plastic waste from the domestic consumption of cooking oil alongside packaged water in urban Greater Accra, Ghana, and all cities nationally in Kenya using two household expenditure surveys. Results: household survey-derived estimates indicate packaged water consumption generates considerably more plastic waste than oil packaging in Greater Accra, whereas oil packaging generates more plastic waste than packaged water in urban Kenya. Conclusion: by successfully transferring a survey analysis protocol from packaged water to cooking oil, we conclude that there is ample potential for expenditure surveys to be used internationally to quantify mismanaged plastic waste from households. However, uncertainties affecting mismanaged waste estimates need to be accounted for

On the use of household expenditure surveys to monitor mismanaged plastic waste from food packaging in low- and middle-income countries

Background: Substantial increases in plastic production have resulted in plastics proliferating of in the environment, with subsequent seabed plastic deposition and ingestion by marine fauna. There is an urgent need to monitor mismanaged plastic waste from household consumption. Household expenditure survey analysis has quantified mismanaged plastic waste generated from household packaged (bottled or bagged) water consumption, but not from consumption of other products. Methods: To evaluate whether household expenditure surveys can quantify mismanaged waste from other widely consumed commodities, we quantify mismanaged plastic waste from the domestic consumption of cooking oil alongside packaged water in urban Greater Accra, Ghana, and all cities nationally in Kenya using two household expenditure surveys. Results: Household survey-derived estimates indicate packaged water consumption generates considerably more plastic waste than oil packaging in Greater Accra, whereas oil packaging generates more plastic waste than packaged water in urban Kenya. Conclusion: By successfully transferring a survey analysis protocol from packaged water to cooking oil, we conclude that there is ample potential for expenditure surveys to be used internationally to quantify mismanaged plastic waste from households. However, uncertainties affecting mismanaged waste estimates need to be accounted for

Environmental Transects Surveys of Mismanaged Waste in Off-Grid Neighbourhoods of Kisumu, Kenya, and Greater Accra, Ghana, 2021

This data set records mismanaged waste in off-grid neighbourhoods lacking essential services in two cities, namely Greater Accra in Ghana and Kisumu in Kenya. The underlying study aimed to quantify mismanaged waste patterns and composition in both cities and evaluate the extent to which environmental transect surveys could be used to quantify mismanaged waste in off-grid urban settings. Two surveyors independently recorded scattered waste items, burnt waste piles, and large waste piles along transects repeated at different times of day. Findings suggest that scattered waste density is considerably higher in Kisumu than in Greater Accra and that products such as nappies and water packaging are locally important waste components. Bland and Altman analysis suggests high inter-observer variation in scattered waste counts, but strong agreement between observers in recording waste piles.</span