Rights on the edge: the right to water and the peri-urban drinking water committees of Cochabamba

This thesis examines how constitutional reforms relating to the right to water in Bolivia have affected water provision in peri-urban Cochabamba. This multi-sited ethnography explores how the right to water has framed reforms to the Bolivian water sector, how and why the right to water has been contested in Bolivia, the impact of reforms to the water sector on peri-urban water committees and emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable water provision in peri-urban Bolivia. It demonstrates that despite the high profile role played by Bolivia in advancing the right to water at the international and national level, in practice the right to water continues to be a fairly nebulous concept. There is a disconnect between Bolivia’s international stance on the human right to water and national reforms around the right to water. This thesis contends that the right to water is a banner under which the water sector has been reformed since the election of Evo Morales in 2006. Even though the constitution states that everyone has the right to water, in practice water often continues to be provided through community providers such as drinking water committees (DWCs), largely due to the failure of municipal water provision. Reforms and policy have focussed on (re)nationalising the sector and establishing new institutions to regulate and develop diverse water providers such as peri-urban DWCs. Through detailed ethnographic examination of peri-urban Cochabamba, the thesis demonstrates that activists and community-water providers in rural and peri-urban areas have contested reforms linked to the right to water. They have contended that reforms have the potential to undermine community water systems, and furthermore, that the state has failed to guarantee basic human rights and service provision. To date, the state and non-state initiatives to enhance the sustainability of DWCs have focussed on certain elements of sustainability, specifically protecting the aquifer and enhancing institutional sustainability of DWCs. By drawing on the experience and development of one DWC, this thesis also explores further elements that present challenges and opportunities to enhance sustainable water provision in peri-urban areas, namely building equitable access, and the reconciling of local power relations

Local Response in Health Emergencies: Key Considerations for Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic in Informal Urban Settlements

This paper highlights the major challenges and considerations for addressing COVID-19 in informal settlements. It discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local protective action. There is heightened concern about informal urban settlements because of the combination of population density and inadequate access to water and sanitation, which makes standard advice about social distancing and washing hands implausible. There are further challenges to do with the lack of reliable data and the social, political and economic contexts in each setting that will influence vulnerability and possibilities for action. The potential health impacts of COVID-19 are immense in informal settlements, but if control measures are poorly executed these could also have severe negative impacts. Public health interventions must be balanced with social and economic interventions, especially in relation to the informal economy upon which many poor urban residents depend. Local residents, leaders and communitybased groups must be engaged and resourced to develop locally appropriate control strategies, in partnership with local governments and authorities. Historically, informal settlements and their residents have been stigmatized, blamed, and subjected to rules and regulations that are unaffordable or unfeasible to adhere to. Responses to COVID-19 should not repeat these mistakes. Priorities for enabling effective control measures include: collaborating with local residents who have unsurpassed knowledge of relevant spatial and social infrastructures, strengthening coordination with local governments, and investing in improved data for monitoring the response in informal settlements

Dataset for the article: A cross-sectional study of asthma in schoolchildren in an informal (slum) settlement and a more affluent residential area of Nairobi, Kenya: the Tupumue study

Contains the protocol and data used to produce this manuscript: A cross-sectional study of asthma in schoolchildren in an informal (slum) settlement and a more affluent residential area of Nairobi, Kenya: the Tupumue study (article in press). Data comprises respiratory symptom, lung function and air pollution data for children aged <=18 years attending schools in the informal settlement of Mukuru in Nairobi and those attending schools in the adjacent more affluent residential area of Buruburu. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This dataset is made available under the Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International v4.0 (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The licence allows for commercial use. Details of the licence can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.57978/LSTM.0002150

Asthma symptoms, spirometry and air pollution exposure in schoolchildren in an informal settlement and an affluent area of Nairobi, Kenya

Background: Although one billion people live in informal (slum) settlements, the consequences for respiratory health of living in these settlements remain largely unknown. This study investigated whether children living in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya are at increased risk of asthma symptoms. Methods: Children attending schools in Mukuru (an informal settlement in Nairobi) and a more affluent area (Buruburu) were compared. Questionnaires quantified respiratory symptoms and environmental exposures; spirometry was performed; personal exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) was estimated. Results: 2373 children participated, 1277 in Mukuru (median age, interquartile range, 11, 9-13 years, 53% girls), and 1096 in Buruburu (10, 8-12 years, 52% girls). Mukuru schoolchildren were from less affluent homes, had greater exposure to pollution sources and PM2.5. When compared with Buruburu schoolchildren, Mukuru schoolchildren had a greater prevalence of symptoms, ‘current wheeze’ (9.5% vs 6.4%, p=0.007) and ‘trouble breathing’ (16.3% vs 12.6%, p=0.01), and these symptoms were more severe and problematic. Diagnosed asthma was more common in Buruburu (2.8% vs 1.2%, p=0.004). Spirometry did not differ between Mukuru and Buruburu. Regardless of community, significant adverse associations were observed with self-reported exposure to ‘vapours, dusts, gases, fumes’, mosquito coil burning, adult smoker(s) in the home, refuse burning near homes, and residential proximity to roads. Conclusion: Children living in informal settlements are more likely to develop wheezing symptoms consistent with asthma that are more severe but less likely to be diagnosed as asthma. Self-reported but not objectively measured air pollution exposure was associated with increased risk of asthma symptoms

Why Participation Matters: Communal Drinking Water Management in Bolivia and Ecuador

In the past 30 years, Drinking Water Users' Associations (DWUAs) have emerged in peri?urban and rural areas in Bolivia and Ecuador where public utilities do not operate. While recognising the challenges to service provision and the problematic around the role of the state that exists in both countries, this article seeks to understand why and how local participation in drinking water systems has been so important for the formation of newly formed peri?urban and rural communities in both Andean nations. It argues that through participation in collective (communal) activities and decision?making, communities are constructed. This article will highlight, through our own experiences, why it became so important for us as researchers to participate in communal water management activities during fieldwork