In this study I investigate sub-national governments to determine whether the accountability derived from local elections improves the delivery of a vital resource – potable water – to the population and, additionally, consider accessibility to improved sanitation. I utilize a cross-national differenced random effects model of 156 countries from 1990-2007 and examine the complex relationship between water, sanitation, and local government. This analysis finds that States with locally elected municipal government have a higher percentage of people with access to improved water and sanitation facilities as opposed to States without locally elected municipal government.

This study investigates the impact of seasonality on standards of water and sanitation in the mountainous district of Humla, Nepal. The research considers impact on two levels: community level access and service delivery. First of all, it examines annual variation in village level access to water and sanitation. Secondly, it looks at the wider picture of service delivery and considers how seasonal variations present opportunities and challenges for improvement in standards for water and sanitation. Three case studies from Humla are presented which illustrate village level access to water and sanitation over a calendar year. These case studies summarise the content of 45 semi-structured interviews, 9 focus group discussions and 9 months of observational work in the district. Variations in weather, village population, infrastructure functionality, and environmental conditions are found to influence the experienced levels of access to water and sanitation at any given time. The impact of seasonality on service delivery was investigated via 39 key informant interviews. Both climatic (e.g. weather) and non-climatic (e.g. budget timings) sources of seasonality are found to impact programme implementation. The mismatch of local seasonal calendars and those imposed by central hubs is found to cause particular difficultly in effective delivery of water and sanitation services. The findings of this research have theoretical, methodological and practical implications. Theoretically, it is suggested that a mountain community s level of access to water and sanitation varies considerably over the course of a calendar year to the point where it needs to be considered if on the ground standards are to be improved. Methodological guidance is provided detailing means of investigating seasonality and its impact on standards of water and sanitation in other scenarios. Practical suggestions focus on incorporating seasonality into assessments of access to water and sanitation and programme delivery in mountain communities.

The main theme in this thesis is potentials for increased user participation in the development of ecological sanitation technologies. The argument is that ecological sanitary engineering can be regarded as a heterogeneous practice that needs to incorporate environmental considerations as well as users’ knowledges and aspirations. To be a heterogeneous engineer therefore means to acquire skills for advanced dialogue with the users and other stakeholders, rather than providing finished technical solutions. In a case study in rural South Africa, I found that much of the responsibility for taking initiatives for the transformation of the water supply and sanitation systems lies with the community. By contrast, a case study of ecological sanitation in urban Sweden revealed that there was generally very little room for user involvement; instead, sanitation specialists presented a picture of the users as recipients of technical systems and information. These two different cases form the basis for a discussion about the relationship between users and specialists and pose the question of how we can encourage participatory technology development practices that users, specialists and ecosystems can endure. On the basis of feminist theory, technoscience and participatory methodologies, I have identified some criteria for feminist sanitary engineering. These include recognition of diversity, feminism beyond gender/deep feminism, reflectivity and heterogeneous engineering, and action research and user participation. The transformation of sanitary engineering towards the inclusion of these criteria is a long-term process, which needs to begin with reflection among sanitation specialists. / Temat i avhandlingen är möjligheten till ökad brukardeltagande i utvecklingen av ekologiska avloppsalternativ. Två studier ligger till grund; en i Sydafrika, där det lokala samhället har stort ansvar för vatten och avlopp, och en i Sverige, där ingenjörer inom kommunen har ansvar för systemen. Några kriterier för en utveckling av feministisk VA-teknik har identifierats, nämligen erkännande av mångfald, feminism bortom könstänkande, reflektivitet och heterogen ingenjörskonst, aktionsforskning och brukardeltagande.

The central aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of variation in access to domestic water supply in a semi-arid, non-riverain area of Sudan. En Nahud District, in North Kordofan Province, was selected for study because it has existing water supply problems and contains distinct spatial variations in geology, which affects the potential for development of underground water resources. Fieldwork in Sudan was carried out between July and December 1988, and information was collected from a range of sources using a variety of methods. The latter included: semi-structured household interviews conducted with women; key informant interviews; observation; and various published and unpublished articles and data sets. In the thesis, the first chapter introduces the national and international context of this study. Past and present water supply development policies and projects in the Sudan are outlined, and set against the goals of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. In the second chapter, the research methodology is discussed. Attempt was made to overcome the several spatial, temporal social and economic biases which have occurred in other studies. In the third chapter, the thesis is placed in the physical and socio-economic context of the Province, and the dynamic relationship between water supply and demand is outlined. The following three chapters focus upon the primary constraints which limit access to domestic water supply: water availability; at-source costs; and transportation costs. The components of each, and the way in which they operate to restrict access, are investigated in relation to varying family resources and requirements. The borrowing of carriage resources and the purchase of transportation services are examined as strategies for overcoming families' internal collection-capacity constraints. Finally, seasonal outmigration is discussed as an important response to inadequate access to water supply. In its conclusion, this thesis shows clearly the importance of examining access to water at the family scale: inter-household variations, such as the ownership of carriage animals and varying labour resources, are shown to be influential in affecting household water supply strategies.

Thesis (MTech (Environmental Health))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / Good sanitation includes appropriate health and hygiene promotion. This implies that proper health and hygiene promotion would have the desired effect as part of sanitation service delivery. However, lessons learnt worldwide show that in the promotion of health and hygiene, it is not enough simply to provide facilities, because if people do not use the available facilities properly, conditions do not improve or the system breaks down. The 1986 Ottawa Charter of the World Health Organisation suggests that effective health and hygiene promotion requires the following key elements: • the empowerment of local communities to take responsibility for promoting sanitation and environmental health • collaborative partnerships of role-players across departments • supportive policy environments. Against this background. the focus of this study is the extent to which health and hygiene promotion forms part of sanitation delivery programmes to informal settlements in the City of Cape Town. The investigation was confined to a comparative review of approaches to health and hygiene promotion in four case study sites (Khayelitsha, Joe Slovo, Kayamandi and Imizamu Yetho) in the context of the following criteria: • Community and household capacity to take responsibility for community-based health and hygiene promotion • Role-players and collaborative partnerships across departments • Implementation of health and hygiene promotion and alignment with national policy. Analysis of the case studies highlights the ineffectiveness of once-off awareness campaigns and the need for a more comprehensive approach to health and hygiene promotion in line with the Ottawa Charter. The push towards universal coverage of basic sanitation services will not bring the intended health benefits of delivery if, for instance, the provision of toilets is not complemented by appropriate health and hygiene promotion programmes.

More than 80 per cent of wastewater from human activities is discharged into the rivers or sea without any pollution removal, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to halve this proportion and increase recycling and reuse globally by 2030. Treatment plants in Sub-Saharan Africa often fail due to lack of operating funds, poor regulation and poor design that does not take into account human factors. The failure of treatment plants can also be put down partly to the funding structures for management, which are often dependent on the disposal tariffs charged. Without sufficient regulation and enforcement, which is often lacking in Sub-Saharan Africa, this often leads to illegal disposal of faecal sludge. Due to the nutrient content and energy potential of wastewater, there is increasing focus on reuse of faecal sludge in ways that can contribute funds for maintenance and incentivise good management of treatment facilities. This research investigates potential designs for the re-use of faecal sludge in small cities in Sub-Saharan Africa to ensure proper treatment. Conducting two case studies using qualitative and quantitative methods, the research looks at the potential for re-use to be scaled up in Sunyani, Ghana and Mzuzu, Malawi, and whether different designs can ensure good management. Building upon the research investigation into how previous designs have failed in case studies, the research also investigates the use of agent-based modelling (ABM) as a modelling approach to explore social and technical aspects of sanitation systems to predict how different designs and management approaches can work. In Sunyani, biogas was the most acceptable option to customers whilst also providing a good business model to fund faecal sludge treatment, either as a decentralised system at public toilets where the fresh sludge is better for biogas production, or centrally at the existing disposal site. The success of biogas as a model that can fund maintenance and ensure good management would depend on the faecal sludge quality of public toilet sludge in the city and the investment level required and how any operating approach would work between the government and private sector. In Mzuzu, two main approaches to faecal sludge re-use exist currently: the implementation of Skyloos as above ground household toilets which provide compost, and a central disposal site from which compost is illegally harvested. At disposal, farmers remove sludge from the ponds and apply it untreated directly onto agricultural land. At times, private sector emptying services do not use the ponds, but also apply untreated sludge to agricultural land. Skyloos were found to have varying levels of success from different Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) projects, with key sustainability issues being the availability of financing mechanisms, management between landlords and tenants and the trust of and engagement with implementing organisations. Existing approaches to waste management and re-use were found to be inaccessible and not working when implemented for the poorest and people with disabilities. Adopting re-use of faecal sludge in agriculture in Malawi would require improved marketing of sanitation options, financing options for households to incentivize adopting the technology, not targeting to poorest households and people with disabilities, and an improved management model for the treatment site to ensure safe disposal and production of compost. Looking at ABM as a way of modelling faecal sludge treatment systems in Sub- Saharan Africa, two models of different approaches in Mzuzu were developed to look at scaling up Skyloo toilets and managing the treatment plant. Both models demonstrate the potential of ABM to incorporate social and technical aspects into predicting the performance of different designs and approaches. The success and use of modelling depends on the quality of data that can be collected before implementing system approaches. Overall the thesis presents different models of treatment and re-use that can work and contribute to operating and maintenance of systems. It is unlikely that any design system will be so profitable that the treatment and re-use of sludge will be able to ensure good management without regulation, so the success of designs depends on relationships between the government and private sector and households in small cities.

No description available.

University of Technology Sydney. Institute of Sustainable Futures. / Sanitation in rapidly growing cities of developing Asian countries is a complex problem that often appears intractable and unyielding to standard problem-solving approaches. In this thesis, I provide a conceptual foundation aligned with sustainability to provide fresh guidance towards resolving this problem. I frame urban sanitation in developing Asian countries as a ‘messy’ planning-related problem, characterised by associations with multiple perspectives, key uncertainties and conflicting interests. In recognition that ‘messy’ problems cannot be confined within traditional disciplinary boundaries, the research uses transdisciplinarity as a guiding principle and methodology. It explores how new processes and complex systems ideas relevant for ‘messy’ problems can be applied to resolving urban sanitation. To ground the work in a real context, much of this work is explicated with reference to Colombo, Sri Lanka. My research highlights the role of dominant perspectives and worldviews in the organisation of sanitation practice. A review of sanitation history exposes changing paradigms, and the potential for developing Asian countries to move to radically different practices aligned with sustainability. I demonstrate that conceptions of costs and cost recovery for sanitation depend on perspective, by comparing how neoclassical economics’, ecological economics’ and Buddhist economics’ perspectives indicate different approaches to these, with different alignments with sustainability. By arguing that these perspectives are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, I integrate them to propose necessary principles for sustainable sanitation, namely, that: arrangements for sanitation should emphasise cooperation between stakeholders; efficiency goals should include entropy considerations; society as a whole should live within its means; and ethics and ‘goodness’ should underpin decision processes and choices. The thesis proposes a framework for participation to support decision-makers in resolving problematic sanitation. This supports the principle of cooperation between stakeholders, and the sustainability discourse’s emphasis of democracy and participation in decisions that affect them. It is a learning process based on soft systems methodology, bringing participants with specialist knowledge, stakeholder interests and broader societal values into dialogue that is explicitly designed to be deliberative, that can lead to a path to resolving the problem. Finally, I explore how ethics and ‘goodness’ can be woven into the provision of sanitation services, particularly with private sector actors who can potentially play a key role. I propose that their representation as metaphorical persons within current legal structures be extended so their behaviour is guided by a moral framework like real people in society. I propose that Buddhist economics can provide such a framework, raising expectations of behaviour grounded in ethics and goodness.

The Health through Sanitation and Water project (HESAWA) was first initiated in 1983/84, and was implemented from 1985 to 2002. The project covered three regions in northwestern Tanzania and strived towards improving the health situation in the area through improvements in the water and sanitation sector, as well as by providing health education to the local people. The aim of this research study is to investigate if the HESAWA project and its implemented structures have been sustainable for the local population in the affected villages in the Geita region in Tanzania. The Sida evaluation manual, Looking Back, Moving Forward, has been used as an analytical frame of interpretation to determine if these goals have been fulfilled. The research was carried out as a fieldstudy in two villages in the Geita and Mwanza region, just south of Lake Victoria. In total 42 interviews were conducted among families, Water Committees, focus groups of men and women, dispensaries, health clinics, schools, NGOs, and former HESAWA workers. The questions were centered on water, sanitation, and health issues. The most common diseases included diarrhea, bilharzia, worms, and malaria. Even though these diseases have decreased in the area, they are still present to a large extent. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the HESAWA project did make a difference in the Geita region. The health standard at large in the villages has increased today compared to during the beginning of the HESAWA project. However, the sustainability of the project was not as good as expected. This is mainly due to an increased population, creating a shortage in water supplies, lack of sanitary conditions including poorly constructed latrines, as well as lack of awareness among the local population in regard to health issues. Financial capital was further a main obstacle towards further development and improvement within the health sector in the villages, wherefore future work within this field is of great necessity.

<p>The challenge of achieving global sanitation targets is that it requires application of both technology that is appropriate and a supporting organizational structure. The interactions between the two begin during the planning/decision-making process and continue throughout the system lifetime. During the last decade, strategic planning frameworks have emerged in the water and sanitation sector that reflect a shift from traditional, top-down planning to a more participatory, bottom-up approach. Despite this shift and in light of the continuing challenge of achieving widespread sanitation in the world, it is necessary to question if a knowledge gap exists between the global sanitation frameworks and local stakeholder priorities. This licentiate thesis presents the first phase of a research project whose objective is to study the global models and compare them with existing local planning and decision-making conditions. It focuses on establishing the global context with regard to strategic planning tools and perspectives on sustainable sanitation. In general, there is close agreement on methodology and processes recommended by international planning frameworks; however the use of the term “sustainable sanitation” is highly variable. In general, the findings of this thesis show that improving sanitation conditions requires tools based on participation, social marketing, and process approaches for planning, capacity development, and feedback. Continuation of this research will investigate the local context regarding current planning practices and perspectives on sustainable sanitation in order to assess potential differences between the global and local context and make recommendations for improving adaptation of planning strategies for bringing sanitation to scale.</p>