Water and Development: Solutions?

'But surely, this makes sense?..'

In this post I would like to address the potential solutions for safe water and adequate sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

What is the right solution? 

Participatory Development: 

The concept of participation, in theory, poses an ideal collaborative situation between the government and communities to work together and solve the main issues regarding access to water and sanitation. It is a way of ensuring actors on an international scale like the UN and WHO work in conjunction with local actors and NGOs to understand the direct needs of the communities they wish to develop. It is often presented as an alternative to state-led or private sector development as these methods were proved to be ineffective and too Euro-centric based. Commended as a positive ethical option, participatory development is often acknowledged for including the marginalised voices within communities and bringing their issues to the forefront. In the early 1990s, debates sparked regarding the binary tension between indigenous knowledge and western knowledge when applying this to potential development strategies around the world. Thus grassroots (bottom up actors) have become hugely important in forming partnerships and collaborating with as we have come to realised the importance of participatory development in today's society. 

However, with participatory development becoming an overly popular phrase used by organisations and international actors in the media, there are concerns on actually how much participation from these grassroots organisations and local communities are taken into account and whether this form of solution is sustainable. After all, many African governments simply lack the basic infrastructure and capital to supply sanitation and safe water to their countries, thus is it fair to say that participatory development is the solution?

This is supported in Harvey and Reed's (2006) work as they discuss how 'community management' has become the predominant model used for managing rural water supplied in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this literature, they highlight that if the management of water supplies are to remain sustainable by the community, then they require continual assistance, monitoring, participatory planning and other forms of technical support from an overseeing institution. Thus this shows that whilst the concept of participatory funding appears as an alternative approach to typical Western top-down development schemes, this reading exhibits that participatory development can only remain sustainable with the interaction of government or private support. With limited financial capacity and resources, support from such institutions and the government are necessary to sustain these facilities and act as a financial buffer in case of emergencies.    

Education: 

It is easy to assume that teaching young children at school or making governments include certain health lessons or policies in education curriculums mandatory would be a suitable option to ensure the future sustainability of safe water and adequate sanitation. However for adults this may not be the case. Creating that sense of ownership for the communities are a crucial aspect for development projects with sanitation and safe water to be sustainable. Stemming from Dr. Page's seminar, I was fascinated by the concept of creating the need for the local people. In other words, the government may provide a clean toilet with soaps for hygiene purposes, yet communities may not understand why they may need it or want it - thus, they need to understand why it is necessary for them and want to use it for themselves. Having never recognised the importance of creating the need prior to educating them about solutions, I was guilty in assuming and taking for granted things that were evidently obvious to me, but would not be to another person. 

Furthermore, understanding that solutions like participatory development is most likely to maintain successfully when the communities actually contribute and invest their personal efforts into the development projects themselves, the prospect of education is simply fundamental to ensure community management and ownership towards sustainable access to water. In Fielmua's 2011 research paper based in the Nadowli District in Ghana, the findings showed that the involvement of the communities in the process of acquiring and managing water facilities led to 88.2% of the District's population with access to potable water in 2008. Educating this community on the importance of safe water meant that they placed extra care and showed willingness in learning about maintaining the water facilities and how to repair materials. Osumanu's (2010) paper also demonstrates how community led savings and exchange programmes in relation to tenure and micro-finance actually empowered local communities to lead change and help the poorer areas of urban Ghana to secure adequate water and sanitation. Such case studies brilliantly exemplify the positive impacts of education on gaining access and managing safe water.

It is very easy to place the terminology 'participatory development', 'education', 'grassroots organisation' as an attractive solution for increasing access to safe water and sanitation as an alternative to the unpopular, expensive and inefficient top-down approaches. However, it is worth noting that all this investment in water and sanitation requires funding, of which Sub-Saharan African governments do not allocate a large proportion to. The next post will focus on privatisation of water and whether this offers a more viable solution to improve access to safe water and adequate sanitation.      

Harvey, P.A. and Reed, R.A., 2007. Community-managed water supplies in Africa: sustainable or dispensable?. Community Development Journal, 42(3), pp.365-378.

Fielmua, N., 2011. The Role of the Community Ownership and Management Strategy towards Sustainable Access to Water in Ghana (A Case of Nadowli District). Journal of Sustainable Development, 4(3), p.174.
Osumanu, K.I., 2010. Urban water and sanitation in Ghana: How local action is making a difference. Iied.