CONTENTS
Chapters
- The Coming Water Crisis
- Water Availability and Use
- Facing Water Shortages
- Consequences of Overuse and Pollution
- The Health Dimension
- Water Conservation and Management
- Toward a Blue Revolution
HIGHLIGHTS
Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-4012, USA
Volume XXVI, Number 1
September, 1998 |
Local Responses
Locally led initiatives are showing that water can be used much more efficiently even in
water-short areas, both urban and rural. Furthermore, when communities manage freshwater
resources better, they also manage soils and forests better, increase crop production, and reduce
the incidence of illness and disease. Even where municipal governments have failed to finance a
potable water supply or to provide proper sanitation, grassroots efforts have sometimes
succeeded. Consider the following examples:
- Managing the Mossi Plateau. In Burkina Faso's main
agricultural area, the Mossi Plateau, a group called the "Six S's" (Se
Servir de la Saison Seche en Savanne et au Sahel) has been promoting
an integrated approach to water management since the late 1970s. The
group encourages small-scale irrigation systems along with re-forestation
and erosion control. It teaches village leaders new techniques for saving
water and growing crops, provides basic hygiene education, and helps
with financing for water conservation (30, 35).
- Balinese rice farmers. Balinese rice growers have used
small-scale irrigation techniques for
the past 500 years. Their system is not technically advanced but instead relies on loose stone
dams and weirs to collect water, which is then distributed to terraced fields, using the
hollowed-out trunks of coconut trees for piping. Accompanying this traditional system of water
distribution is a social structure that regulates water among different communities, apportioning
it according to the size of each rice paddy (30). The system works partly because women, the
main source of paddy labor, have a hand in its management.
- Urban sanitation in Karachi. In Pakistan the Orangi Pilot Project,
carried out in one of the
worst slums in Karachi, was able to provide 600,000 people with a sewer system and with
covered latrines. The project, which was carried out with a small amount of external funding,
worked because of progressive local leadership and strong community support. But the benefits
did not end with piped water. The project also increased access to better reproductive health and
family planning services, which will help reduce future demand for water (153).
- Potable piped water in Tegucigalpa. In Honduras six poor
communities in the country's capital city pooled limited resources to
make a deal with the water utility to provide them with piped water.
This scheme is notable because (1) the
price that households paid for water actually dropped as a result of
the piped water connections, since residents no longer had to buy water
from street vendors, and (2) the average household connection rate in
each of the six communities was 85%, and the consumers themselves paid
for the connections (153).
As this example demonstrates, even in poor urban areas clean piped water can be provided at
a price that community members can afford to pay and that water utilities can accept. Recent
studies in a number of countries make clear that poor people are prepared to pay for piped water
and proper sanitation, if given the chance. In Onitsha, Nigeria, for instance, poor households
were spending up to 18% of their meager monthly income on water purchased from street
vendors, a percentage that dropped to under 5% when piped water was provided (153).
Taking action. Local communities should take an active part in planning and implementing
water management schemes, if they are to be sustainable. Poor communities, in particular, have
had notable success in introducing autonomous local distribution of water, either through special
arrangements with the water authority or with private vendors. Communities also have set up
community-managed vending kiosks or operated small, autonomous water supply systems (153).
Accessibility of clean water, as has been noted, promotes better household hygiene and
improves health and well-being. Access to the water supply should be as close to homes as
possible and should be reliable. Plans for piping water to poor households should consider the
amount of water needed, choose the appropriate level of technology, and price the water
according to the ability to pay (153). Water supply and public health programs both should
emphasize preventive health care education and encourage the use of clean water for personal
and domestic hygiene (26, 54). |
