Examining urban water management practices – Challenges and possibilities for transitions to sustainable urban water management in Sub-Saharan cities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Examining urban water management practices – Challenges and possibilities for transitions to sustainable urban water management in Sub-Saharan cities

AU - Herslund, Lise

AU - Mguni, Patience

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - This paper uses a social practices lens to examine water management practices of households in Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam, their drivers and opportunities for change and discusses how far these practices fit into a sustainable urban water management agenda in an urban African context. The paper is based on interviews and workshops with inhabitants in two case sites as well as city stakeholders. In both cities the official discourse is the development and extension of universal conventional centralised water systems. However these are malfunctioning systems co-existing with various decentralised household water management practices. One challenge is how to complement the resource-intensive modern infrastructure ideal with low-technology, green infrastructure-based approaches. Another is how to change the discursive framings of existing decentralised practices from disqualification as ‘rural’ practices unfit for the urban. Finally, as developing cities purse sustainable development goals it is necessary to strengthen the ability of the urban water regime to support co-production and decentralised water management activities whilst reconfiguring those elements of practices that are inherently unsustainable.

AB - This paper uses a social practices lens to examine water management practices of households in Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam, their drivers and opportunities for change and discusses how far these practices fit into a sustainable urban water management agenda in an urban African context. The paper is based on interviews and workshops with inhabitants in two case sites as well as city stakeholders. In both cities the official discourse is the development and extension of universal conventional centralised water systems. However these are malfunctioning systems co-existing with various decentralised household water management practices. One challenge is how to complement the resource-intensive modern infrastructure ideal with low-technology, green infrastructure-based approaches. Another is how to change the discursive framings of existing decentralised practices from disqualification as ‘rural’ practices unfit for the urban. Finally, as developing cities purse sustainable development goals it is necessary to strengthen the ability of the urban water regime to support co-production and decentralised water management activities whilst reconfiguring those elements of practices that are inherently unsustainable.

KW - African cities

KW - Coexistence

KW - Coproduction

KW - Social practices

KW - Sustainable urban water management

KW - Water management practices

U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101573

DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101573

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85064878143

SN - 2210-6707

VL - 48

JO - Sustainable Cities and Society

JF - Sustainable Cities and Society

M1 - 101573

ER -