Urban drinking-water supplies are still implicated as pathways for the transmission of waterborne disease. A move toward risk informed, proactive water system management has occurred over the past decade and is advocated in current international drinking water guidelines. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is a tool with potential for aiding health risk management; however the refinement of scientific based practical methods to support that philosophy still requires development. This thesis focused on the water utility, its responsibility to manage microbial water safety, and how probabilistic QMRA may aid in developing management strategies. A framework for waterborne disease risk assessment from urban supply systems was derived and tested on an Australian case study. The main premise was that, in order for risk assessment outcomes to inform the management process, the steps should incorporate the concepts of risk variability, the explicit event conditions that can drive it, and that examination of QMRA sensitivity to various risk scenarios/model uncertainties is undertaken. The identified management uses were: (i) prioritising for attention issues hampering the system's ability to meet or the assessor's ability to interpret against (e.g. knowledge gaps about the system), a water quality health target; and (ii) identifying potential strategies or control points for addressing those issues. Additionally, rarely occurring, high impact, adverse fluctuations in treated water quality (and consumer infection risks), especially from source water contaminant "peaks", are highly, nearly totally, influential over the extent of risks averaged over longer, say annual, periods. As such, a case is made calling for widespread adoption of health targets that refer to tolerable consumer risks per exposure, rather than or as well as the current common practice of expressing targets in terms of risks from exposure over a year or lifetime. Doing so may provide incentive and opportunities for improved management, and the future derivation of specific microbial treatment or treated water quality targets, with a view toward protecting the community from extreme high risk periods associated with disease outbreaks.

Urban drinking-water supplies are still implicated as pathways for the transmission of waterborne disease. A move toward risk informed, proactive water system management has occurred over the past decade and is advocated in current international drinking water guidelines. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) is a tool with potential for aiding health risk management; however the refinement of scientific based practical methods to support that philosophy still requires development. This thesis focused on the water utility, its responsibility to manage microbial water safety, and how probabilistic QMRA may aid in developing management strategies. A framework for waterborne disease risk assessment from urban supply systems was derived and tested on an Australian case study. The main premise was that, in order for risk assessment outcomes to inform the management process, the steps should incorporate the concepts of risk variability, the explicit event conditions that can drive it, and that examination of QMRA sensitivity to various risk scenarios/model uncertainties is undertaken. The identified management uses were: (i) prioritising for attention issues hampering the system's ability to meet or the assessor's ability to interpret against (e.g. knowledge gaps about the system), a water quality health target; and (ii) identifying potential strategies or control points for addressing those issues. Additionally, rarely occurring, high impact, adverse fluctuations in treated water quality (and consumer infection risks), especially from source water contaminant "peaks", are highly, nearly totally, influential over the extent of risks averaged over longer, say annual, periods. As such, a case is made calling for widespread adoption of health targets that refer to tolerable consumer risks per exposure, rather than or as well as the current common practice of expressing targets in terms of risks from exposure over a year or lifetime. Doing so may provide incentive and opportunities for improved management, and the future derivation of specific microbial treatment or treated water quality targets, with a view toward protecting the community from extreme high risk periods associated with disease outbreaks.

The performance of public utilities in low-income countries with respect to service to all customers, and particularly lower-income urban consumers, is understood to be limited in many cases. The Government of Ghana chose to implement a private sector management contract in order to deliver significant change in service delivery and financial viability. The five year management contract with Aqua Vitens Rand Limited ran from 2006 to 2011 and was not renewed. This study investigates the public utility outcomes, both as a state owned corporation and a state owned limited liability Company, and compares those outcomes with the achievements of the private operator through a Management Contract. The latter two management models operated under the oversight of the newly formed economic regulator, the Public Utility Regulatory Commission in 1999 and any effect of that regulation is considered. The hypothesis of the study developed in 2008 was that “a management contract would not provide the necessary level of empowerment, incentives and commitment and access to resources for a private operator to adequately and efficiently perform even where there is an established economic regulator with a clear mandate”. The case study approach was employed for the study data was gathered on the operations, activities, regulation and management of the urban water utility through documentary review, key-informant interviews, household surveys, public hearing meetings and user observations. However, three major cities including Accra, Kumasi and Tamale were used for the household survey. These three cities were carefully picked out taking into account the political, economic, geographical, social and cultural significance that each of the them represents and commands in Ghana.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study focuses on the contradictory ways officials frame the problem of providing water services in Kampala with specific emphasis on the debates about framing of key factors that constrain delivery. Perceptions about and framing of policy issues implicitly suggest the causes of problems. Policy scholars acknowledge that formulating policy is “messy” and that it is about values, and not as “evidence-based” as is often assumed. Using a social constructionist perspective that stresses that perceptions tell one how people define situations, this study demonstrates the often contradictory ways that state officials see public problems. Drawing on debates about rational and muddling-through approaches, the study uses thirty structured questionnaires and several semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the narratives of government officials regarding policy formulation in water delivery. The thesis found that almost all officials see rapid growth in population density in informal areas coupled with unplanned settlements as the single biggest combined issue inhibiting progress. Officials favoured market-related solutions even though their diagnosis of the problem suggested more concerted and comprehensive public planning of urban development.

Efforts to commercialize water supply and sanitation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have been pushed vigorously by internal and external proponents of neo-liberalism. The thesis takes a critical look at these developments and analyzes the role of multinational finance institutions in this process. In particular, it looks into the role of these finance institutions in funding reform projects to corporatize Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), examining the impacts on end users, especially marginalized sections of society. The thesis describes how, in the process of corporatization, Dhaka WASA is and will continue to be more assertive in its commercial orientation than it was previously. The paper also studies a highly touted ‘successful’ co-operative model for revenue management called Program for Performance Improvement (PPI), seen by some as an alternative to privatization. I argue that the model in fact emerged as a consequence of the commercialization efforts of neoliberal reforms and that the revenue management model has created an isolated business unit with a reclusive management that undermines the egalitarian objectives of the water utility as a public service entity. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-01-06 12:06:45.901

This diploma´s thesis aims to model the hydraulic model of the Brno – Ivanovice water supply system. The software MIKE URBAN for model hydraulic model of water supply system was used. It was performed a simulation of the various states of loading. The water supply system was assessment of pressure ratios. The outcome of this work is calibrated hydraulic model of water supply system. The appendix consists also of drawings, which represented pressure ratios, which are situated on water supply system. On the fourth drawing is described transparent situation of Brno-Ivanovice water supply system.

The main objective of this study was to determine water access and use characteristics of household in Dar es Salaam in order to determine how the integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach can be applied in solving the water crisis in the city as well as other challenges of urban water supply and sanitation. A limited household water access and use survey was carried out in all three districts of Dar es Salaam. It was found that some of the principles of IUWM such “fit for purpose use” are already being practiced informally at household level, although this is not recognized in planning by Water Authorities. The study also shows that practices geared at saving and efficient use of water are well entrenched in households; with even those with access to sufficient amounts of water practicing it. At the user level, there do not appear to be any obstacles to adoption of IUWM. The potential for IUWM application is therefore shown to exist and recommendations are made for immediate measures such as incorporation of the various water sources in use in households into the formal system as well as improvements to methods of water saving, ground water extraction and rain water harvesting. Recommendations are also provided for wider adaptation of the entire city water management system to IUWM with emphasis on context driven solutions.

In this study, four real-life problem situations were used to explore the challenges of developing and implementing decision support tools for planning and management within an urban water utility. The study sought to explore how the degree of adoption of formal decision support tools in practice, generally perceived to be low, could be improved. In the study, an Action Research (AR) approach was used. AR is an inquiry process that involves partnership between researchers and practitioners for the purpose of addressing a real-life problem issue, while simultaneously generating scientific knowledge. Unlike other research methods where the researcher seeks to study organizational phenomena but not to change them, the action researcher attempts to create organizational change and simultaneously to study the process. During the study, a number of prototype data management tools were developed. GIS-based spatial analysis and visualisation tools were extensively used to inform and enhance the processes of participatory problem identification and structuring, while a number of modelling tools were applied in the generation and evaluation of alternative solutions. As an outcome of the study, a prototype framework for the application of decision support tools within an urban water supply planning and management context was proposed. The study highlighted the challenges of embedding formal decision support processes within existing work systems in organizations, and recommendations were made on how best to achieve this. The AR approach was found to be useful in bridging the gap between academic research and technological practice, supporting the development of computerised planning and decision support tools of practical benefit to organizations. / QC 20100723

This thesis analyses the development of urban water supply and sanitation services in Ghana from 1909 to 2005.  Special focus is put on institutional arrangements with regard to networked, large scale and centrally managed water and sewerage services. The national and international historical context is highlighted as a way to understand policy redirections in the sector. Further on, the concept of frames is used as an analytical tool in order to put light on the assumptions, arguments and reasons behind institutional reforms. The thesis finds that it was not until the water and sanitation challenge was framed from a productivity perspective, as opposed to a pure humanitarian “health frame”, that funds were released for investments in WSS infrastructure. To begin with, development strategies were largely focussed on “filling the gaps” in terms of manpower, technical and financial resources. As the water challenge was increasingly framed as a matter of managing scarcity, a new thinking gradually emerged which emphasized entrepreneurship, business mindedness and management skills as a way to achieve more efficiency within the sector. This development was also paralleled by a shift in the favoured organisational structure from an extremely centralised state utility model to a gradual focus on decentralisation and unbundling of the sector. Here a strong focus was put on private sector participation in urban water supply whereas the non-commercially viable task of sewerage development was decentralised to local authorities. The study finds that formal institutional change in the sector has been largely donor driven. However, the privatisation element of the recent urban water sector reform did not go unquestioned and a strong opposition movement concerned with the possible negative effects of privatisation was formed. Eventually the initial lease arrangement was transformed into a management contract where its signing was brought to closure in 2005. Besides changing frames strong elements of continuity in the urban water supply and sanitation sector development in Ghana are identified. Historical evidence demonstrate that urban water delivery was a highly political issue in Ghana already during colonial times which, just as today, was closely connected to the framing of water as independence and national integrity. The issue of finance and pricing has remained a constant concern and so the debate cannot be categorized as a novel issue that solely emanates from neo-liberal political trends during the 1980’s and 1990’s. The thesis argues that a legacy of a colonial frame tends to continue normalising inequalities in access and consumption.  Continuity can also be found in a neglect of the issue of sanitation which persistently lags behind the development of water distribution. The dissertation concludes that the perceived space for policy alternatives in Ghanaian WSS sector development has been largely constrained by the historical context and contemporary development theories. Therefore, to constantly strive towards a frame reflective policy dialogue is strongly encouraged as a way for policy planners and decision makers to make well informed decisions for the future.

This project seeks to assess the impact of the sachet water industry on the health, socio-economic and the environmental situation of the inhabitants of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. In addressing the situation, the driving forces which have fuelled the shift of consum-er taste from the normal tap water and the traditional hand-tied-ice water products to the plastic sachet water (commonly known in as "Pure Water") are identified. Lack of access to continuous flow of improved water and the perceived poor quality of the urban water supply system as results of poor management structure are identified as some of the factors for the shift in consumers’ taste for plastic sachet and bottled drinking water. The quality of the plastic sachet is also assessed through the review of previous research results. These are confirmed by laboratory analysis of about six brands of plastic sachet water and two brands bottled drinking water. The laboratory analysis carried out assessed the microbial, physical and chemical quality of the various samples. To assess the health impacts of the products, the results from the analysis are compared with WHO guideline values and other international guideline values. Questionnaires are also administered to ascertain the socio-economic impacts of the products on the life of the young men and women as well sachet water manufacturers. From this, some measures are suggested as to how to mitigate the activities of the sachet water business to reduce its negative effects on the health, the environment and the socio-economic status of the inhabitants of the city.