Search

Addressing piped water problems in urban settlements through Participatory Planning

Written by Dr Regina Souter

In August 2024, the urban WASH research team came together in Suva, Fiji, to undertake action research on piped water supply in urban informal settlements. Until recently, there has been an assumption that residents or urban settlements that access their drinking water from a piped water supply from the utility, were accessing a safely managed water service (using the definitions of the SDG6.1 indicator). However our urban WASH research project revealed that although most residents are indeed accessing piped utility water, these aren’t necessarily providing safe and reliable water to the households using them. Local hazards – some related to climate change – are causing damage to the pipes that convey water from connection meters on the settlement boundary, to the tap.

Drs. Regina Souter (International WaterCentre, Griffith University) and Ed Morgan (Griffith University) joined forces in Suva, Fiji, with our research partner USP-Fiji, led by Camari Koto and supported by Grace Ratidara and Viliame Salusalu. Although the water utility regularly engages with its customers, those that live in urban settlements have different engagement needs to typical urban water customers. We used action research to explore the suitability of various Participatory Planning approaches to support engagement that is more two-way, to jointly solve local piped water supply problems.

An initial, day-long workshop was held off-site, at USP, and was an important step in bringing together the participants. These included residents from the target settlement (Muslim League), and a range of actors with varying levels of responsibility for WASH: Water Authority of Fiji, Department of Water and Sewerage, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Dept of Department of Town & Country Planning and Suva City Council. This workshop explore different Participatory Planning approaches, such as Scenario Planning, which we tested out on fictional settlements hat were representative of settlements in Suva. One task common to most of the approaches we discussed, was taking the time to explore how existing or possible alternative water service delivery models impact people’s lives. A number of government/utility participants commented that this was something not considered or discussed very much, because they assume the services they are providing have only positive impacts. This workshop day, focused on life-like, but not the actual, problems proved important for developing a rapport between participants, and giving residents a more equal voice in discussing the impacts and possible solutions to water problems.

To test our participatory planning in a real situation, a second workshop was hosted by the Muslim League settlement, with the same participants. Residents led stakeholders on a ‘community transect (inspired by Participatory Rural Appraisal methods) to build a collective understanding of the nature of the water supply problems and the main causes. Following the transect discussion of the problems, small groups identified a long list of solutions that residents could consider implementing, some with support from local actors such as the utility, but all with community-led actions. Time was given to discuss the details of such solutions, including the strengths and weaknesses, to ensure the community were well-informed about the options. The meeting closed with community leaders describing deep appreciation for the opportunity to raise awareness of the problems and explore in more detail the causes and possible solutions with a diverse mix of technical and local/onsite knowledge.

As an action research activity, we want to understand the strengths and weaknesses of adoption of such Participatory Planning approaches, and are looking forward to supporting and assessing progress on what is a critical issue – access to safe, reliable and resilient water supplies for these overlooked urban populations.

 

Learn More

The Project – Planning for climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene in urban settlements in Melanesia –

Postcards from the field – Port Vila

Pacific Researcher Exchange – from Suva to Port Villa

Pacific Islands Regional Knowledge and Learning Exchange: Suva, Fiji, 6 – 10 November 2023

A multi-stakeholder approach to address water and sanitation challenges in underserved settlements in PNG

Did you know? IWC research prioritises producing practical and usable tools

Faith-based Organisations and WASH in Solomon Islands: A missing link?

Written by Dr Mark Love

 

Research conducted as part of PaCWaM+1 sought to answer the question: Do churches have a role to play in supporting community-based water management in the Pacific and, if so, what might this look like? Based on formative research in Solomon Islands and desk-top reviews of other Pacific Island Countries (PICs), the answer was “Yes, they do” and various options of what this might look like were identified.

With the support of the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund, the International WaterCentre (IWC), Griffith University and Solomon Islands National University (SINU) have been undertaking action research with the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM), United Church (UC), South Sea Evangelical Church (SSES) and Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) churches in the Provinces of Isabel and Western.

Last year, IWC / SINU conducted workshops with 26 leaders from different church denominations in Solomon Islands, supported by senior environmental health inspectors from the relevant Provincial Environmental Health Division/RWASH. During the workshops, participants developed Action Plans and committed to undertaking numerous actions to improve community water management in their respective communities.

In June and July this year, Collin Benjamin and Sheilla Funubo, under the guidance of Dr Hugo Bugoro and Nixon Panda (SINU), completed monitoring of these Action Plans. The results are promising, supporting “proof of concept”.  Highlights include:

  • Conducting community awareness about water management (sometimes using the “Water is Everyone’s Business: video)
  • Re-establishing water committees
  • Introducing or re-vitalising water fees
  • Conducting fundraising for water system improvement
  • Improving rubbish collection and disposal in the village
  • Cleaning tap-stands and dams more frequently
  • Undertaking repairs
  • Priests’ integrating water stewardship messages into sermons.

In terms of meeting the specific targets as laid out in each of the Action Plans, most communities were sitting on between 40-70% completion rate.

Before, you would see empty plastic bottles and detergent containers lying around the stand taps. Now, you hardly see them” (Titiro, Isabel)

The Oceanic region is known as “the most solidly Christian part of the world,” with over 90% of Pacific Islanders identifying as Christian. Churches and church-related organizations (faith-based organizations or FBOs) play a crucial role in the region’s history, culture, and politics. In rural Solomon Islands, church leaders, along with customary institutions like chiefs and cultural norms, shape the patterns of daily life. As George Hoa’au has noted, “The church has a very special kind of respect within villages; people don’t see the member of parliament every day, they see the pastor and priest every day.” Church-related groups are typically the most active institutions at the village level, providing many of the services typically associated with the state in Western contexts.

Some of the church leaders involved in the workshops undertook actions in all the communities they oversee (up to 6 villages), demonstrating the institutional reach and scalability of the church.

Churches are not a magic bullet, but they are an active, influential and overlooked WASH ally in the Pacific region. The early results of this research suggest that FBOs constitute an important “plus” that can help support the community-based water model at the rural level.  Government and other actors still have an important role to play but whilst the community-water management model remains the dominant approach in the region churches  can, and should, be engaged with more by development partners and governments seeking to improve rural WASH in PICs

Fig. 1. Tap-stand, Baolo village, Isabel

 

Fig. 2. Sheilla Funubo interviews a member of the Mothers Union as part of the monitoring research in Buala village, Isabel

Learn more about this project

Pacific Community Water Management Plus (PaCWaM+)

This International WaterCentre led research project explored how CSOs and governments can better enable rural community water management in the Pacific to improve SDG6 outcomes, using community water management plus practices.

This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund.

 

Our Research Partners for this project include:  Griffith University, Plan International Australia, Live and Learn Solomon Islands, Habitat for Humanity Australia, University of South Pacific and Solomon Islands National University

“Wai Tamata” (Water for Peace): World Water Day in Vanuatu

On Friday, 22nd March, Dr Mark Love (International WaterCentre) and Heather Molitambe (The University of the South Pacific – Vanuatu), were privileged to attend the “Commemoration of World Water Day” in Saratamata, Ambae Island, Penama Province, Vanuatu.

Mark and Heather are working on “PacWaM+ 2: Supporting decentralised rural water supply in Pacific Islands”, a research project being undertaken in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Fiji, supported by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Water for Women Fund.  Mark and Heather were in Ambae and Pentecost wrapping -up formative research on the status of rural water service delivery decentralisation in Vanuatu, and interviewing members of a remarkable water committee in Latano, central-north Pentecost, for a video for the Department of Water Resources on strong water committees.

World Water Day – a United Nations observance day since 1993 – seeks to focus attention on the global water crisis. This year’s theme was “Water for Peace” and draws attention to the fact that water can create both peace and conflict – when water is scarce or polluted, or when people have limited, no, and/or unequal access to water, tensions can rise.  As climate change impacts increase, and populations grow, there is an urgent need to unite around protecting and conserving our most precious resource – water.

The Water Day celebrations were led by the Department of Water and Resources (DoWR), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) and Vanuatu Department of Meteorology and Geo-Hazards (World Meteorological Organisation Day is 23 of March).  Numerous dignitaries from the Provincial and national government attended for the day, specifically Hon. MP Rick Techamako Mahe (Minister of Internal Affairs), Johnstil Tari Qwuetu (Minister of Health), (acting) Director General (DG) Lands, Erickson Sammy (former Director of DoWR) and (acting) Director DoWR, Brooks Rakau.

In continuity with this year’s World Water Day, the message was translated as Wai tamata (wai = water, tamata = peace/unity, in many of the 130+ vernacular languages spoken in Vanuatu).  Following numerous speeches – including a fascinating talk by Chief Elison Reveala on the source and spiritual significance of water on nearby Maewo island (renowned for having the highest rainfall in the country and literally hundreds of spectacular waterfalls) – there was a ground-breaking ceremony for the new DoWR office building as well as the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Saratamat Water Supply system.   The new, extended water supply system will bring piped, safe groundwater to over 1000 people currently without access to safe and reliable.

The DoWR, who were also running their annual retreat in Saratamat in week leading up to World Water Day – facilitated negotiations and eventual agreement between over ten customary land groups, some of which have contested claims over the ground where the pipes will be located.  Land disputes are one of the most substantive and intractable issues impinging rural development in many parts of the country (from water and energy projects to airports and provincial government buildings).  In the spirit of Wai Tamata, key members of the DoWR successfully negotiated with the leaders of the customary land holding groups, and on Wai Tamata Day publicly singed an Access Agreement alongside Hon. Minister Rick Tchamakao Mahe, DG Erickson and all the key customary landowners, who reported that they “were happy for the project extension and the benefits it will bring our people”.

 

Learn more about this project

Pacific Community Water Management Plus (PaCWaM+)

A multi-stakeholder approach to address water and sanitation challenges in underserved settlements in PNG

From June 19th to June 23rd, 2023, Dr. Benny Rousso, representing the International Water Centre (IWC), visited Port Moresby to advance the Climate-resilient and inclusive WASH project in unserved urban settlements in the Melanesian Pacific region. The project, funded by the Water for Women fund (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs), aims to understand different water and sanitation delivery models’ effectiveness in terms of climate resilience and inclusivity in underserved settlements.

During the visit, Dr. Rousso met with partners from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), Dr. Linus Digm’Rina and Mt. Elias Mamosha, and Papua New Guinea WaterAid, represented by Mr. Donald Kanini. The discussions centered around mapping and selecting relevant settlements and stakeholders in Port Moresby, as well as strategies for data collection within the communities.

Additionally, the team conducted a site visit to Pari, a traditional indigenous settlement where water and sanitation services have been insufficiently planned due to customary law practices. To address this issue, WaterAid will trial a water delivery model involving the establishment of water kiosks, supported by local leaders to regulate water usage. With most of the necessary infrastructure already in place, the trial will commence once the local water utility, WaterPNG, begins supplying water to the kiosks within Pari.

The activities undertaken during the visit are essential in understanding the unique circumstances of each settlement in Port Moresby. This knowledge will inform tailored strategies, interventions, and resource allocation for data collection, ensuring the project’s effectiveness.

The collaboration between the IWC, UPNG, and WaterAid reflects a multi-stakeholder approach to address water and sanitation challenges in underserved settlements. By leveraging local knowledge, academic expertise, and community engagement, the project aims to develop sustainable and inclusive solutions that can be replicated across the Melanesian Pacific region. Additionally, the project seeks to build local capacity and promote decolonization practices.

Learn more about this project

Planning for climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene in urban settlements in Melanesia

Did you know? IWC research prioritises producing practical and usable tools

At IWC, our approach to research has always been collaborative, transdisciplinary, and based on a partnerships. We focus on producing outputs that are relevant to the governments and practitioners with whom we work. While we also publish our research in top-tier academic journals, we work hard to ensure that research doesn’t get buried within the academic community but is accessible and in formats that can be easily used, shared, replicated, and applied in practical ways in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.  

The end of 2022 marks a significant milestone for our IWC applied research team, with three of our largest research programmes, funded under the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s flagship WASH program the Water for Women fund, are reached completion. These projects span from Indonesia to Fiji and all countries in between, and with a collection of academic partners that include the University of Udayana (UU, Indonesia), Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB, Indonesia), University of the South Pacific (Fiji and Vanuatu), and the Solomon Islands National University (Solomon Islands). They also involve numerous partnerships with government departments, private sector actors, non-government organisations, and rural and urban communities. The evidence, knowledge products and tools generated by these project have reached numerous academic and non-academic audiences. 

So, if you have a current focus on rural water safety planning, engaging corporate actors in WASH, or sanitation for young children, we have a tool for you!  

Inclusive WASH at Work Guidelines   

After a detailed formative research stage, the IWC, UU and ITB project team worked together with hotels, resorts, all levels of government and women’s and disabled persons’ organisations to co-develop guidelines. Multiple sets of Guidelines have been developed for different audiences including:  

  1. Hotels / resorts: to self-assess their provision of Inclusive WASH in workplaces, and their contributions to destination-wide WASH and water stewardship outcomes 
  1. Government: to outline their roles and responsibilities in ensuring inclusive WASH for all people within tourism destination 
  1. Community: to encourage adoption of hygienic WASH practices and engage with tourism planning and development  

Tools were produced in local language as relevant, with Bahasa Indonesia versions and community education posters produced in Fijian, and are now housed not only on IWC’s website, but also on local government and tourism association websites.  

Community Water Management Tools  

An important approach to water services, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, has been the community water management (CWM) model. However, globally evidence suggests that most communities struggle to manage water services, without any support, and to achieve sustainable, resilient and inclusive ones. The community water management plus (CWM+) model is considered a viable improvement to the basic CWM model (Baumann, 2006; Hutchings et al., 2015, 2017). Following the establishment of any necessary water infrastructure and community water management, the CWM+ model includes long-term support from external organisations and / or people in a way that augments CWM.   

Previous CWM+ research has identified a range of generic intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence ‘good’ CWM outcomes (Hutchings et al., 2015; World Bank, 2017). However, the unique context of Pacific Island Countries (PICs) required rigorous place-based evidence about which approaches are most feasible and effective in the region. The Pacific Community Water Management Plus (PaCWaM+) research sought to identify what the ‘plus’ factors might look like in two PICs, Fiji and Solomon Islands, by asking what type of support is needed by communities, and how that support might be achieved. Later stages of the research focused on further exploring – and where possible piloting – some potential supporting approaches and tools, which are documented in our PACWAM+ compendium. 

Child Faeces Management  

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is an approach commonly used to address and reduce open defecation across the Pacific, including as part of the rural sanitation policy in the Solomon Islands. However, here, as in many CLTS programs, the management of sanitation for young children and infants (less than 5 years old) is a gap. We addressed this gap by considering the behaviour change challenge of motivating the parents of young children to choose safe and gender-equitable methods of child-faeces management in rural contexts. We found the strongest motivator for parents tends to be related to nurturing and caring for their children, and so we used this to design and pilot several activities including a role play and motivational video that can be used by CLTS implementers. In a controlled trial, we found the tools and activities to promote an increase in understanding and desire to chose safe and equitable options, and that implementers could see the relevance and applicability of the tools to their existing program of works. The toolkit is freely available here, including this video which uses real-life testimonials from parents in rural Solomon Islands to describe why they practice safe CFM with their children. 

 

Child Faeces Management Project moves to next phase

The partnership between the International Water Centre (IWC), Solomon Islands National University (SINU) and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine partnerships reached an exciting milestone this month with the release of their Phase 1 Research Report on safe Child Faeces Management (CFM) in the Solomon Islands.

The safety of CFM is particularly relevant in the Solomon Island where diarrhoea is a leading cause of childhood mortality, causing almost 25% of childhood deaths. Child malnutrition and stunting affects 33% of children, and of the 80% of the population living in rural areas, there is still 80% open defecation and only 16% have a handwashing facility with soap.

According to IWC Project Officer, Water Sanitation and Hygiene, Rosie Sanderson, the formative research helped the team to better understand the knowns and unknowns of CFM in five selected villages from provinces where Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) implementation had occurred previously.

“Child faeces management is a routine behaviour, and often undertaken by parents without much conscious and planned thought, “Rosie explains.

“Rather, parents are motivated by a desire to look after their children (nurture) and for them to be happy and healthy. Parents tended to be disgusted by the poo of others and by the thought of their child (or a dog) coming into contact with the poo, but not so much specifically having to deal with the poo of their own children.”

“From a behavioural perspective, this meant parents tended to move the poo from the ground where the child defecated, to somewhere else out of the way – though that “out of the way” place was not always safe – the mangroves, the beach, the stream, or at the base of the bananas in the garden.”

While it is acknowledged that hygiene practices, including handwashing, are an important part of safe CFM, the target behaviour for this project was for child faeces, where possible, be moved to a latrine or toilet. This option is considered to be the safest by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and have broad consensus with experts globally.

“Some parents already practice safe CFM, and our challenge is to motivate more parents to do this and to normalise this behaviour,” Rosie said.

The formative research also explored how fathers were involved in CFM and what sorts of social, environmental, and epistemological barriers might hinder their involvement.

The project explicitly recognised that promoting changes to how families manage their children’s sanitation could, if not appropriately considered and enacted, increase women’s domestic workloads and/or contribute to the risk of Gender-Based Violence perpetrated by men if domestic gender norms are challenged.

Rosie said the team conducted the research activities separately with mothers and with fathers and determined that safe CFM can be promoted as an issue for parents because nurturing and looking after their children were considered a high priority for both mothers and fathers.

The formative research has revealed there are several levers that could be employed to support behaviour change in safe faeces disposal as part of safe CFM, including:

  • Removing barriers and addressing convenience (for example location and accessibility of latrines, tools to move poo etc)
  • Rewarding and amplifying the relevant motives for safe CFM behaviours
  • Supporting the formation of safe CFM habits (by helping parents plan and normalising the behaviours)
  • Filling knowledge and awareness gaps (for example that children’s faeces can be as harmful as adults)

The findings have already been shared with the Solomon Islands Sanitation Working Group convened by UNICEF and RWASH (Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, under the Ministry of Health and Medical Services), and the feedback was great with the working group members discussing the gap in the sanitation approach related to CFM and what could be done about it.

“There was broad support for incorporating the findings of our research into their community engagement approach, and we are currently preparing an integrated package of activities that use the behavioural levers.”

The team will be presenting their findings at the UNC’s Water and Health conference in October.

A picture is worth a thousand words – collecting data using picture cards in Solomon Islands

The failure to separate and contain the faeces of infants and young children, causes significant human health risks to Solomon IslandersMany situational factors influence the way in which child faeces is managed, including low rates of access to safe sanitation facilities, varying knowledge and beliefs around children’s faeces, and the higher potential for transmission of pathogens from child faeces to children because of hand-to-mouth behaviours. While there is increasing focus on trying to close the sanitation gap for people living in the Solomon Islands, the safe management of children’s faeces is seldom considered. 

The project aims to develop a behaviour change intervention that promotes safe child faeces management in rural Solomon Islands villages. To do so, the research team is conducting formative research to learn about current child faeces management practices, attitudes, motives (what makes people do or not do certain things related to child faeces management), and the different roles of men and women in childcare activities.

One of the picture cards given to the community. Photo: IWC.

 

The research project Promoting Safe Child Faeces Management in Solomon Islands led by the International WaterCentre at Griffith University in partnership with the Solomon Islands National University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, addressees this issue.

The project aims to develop a behaviour change intervention that promotes safe child faeces management in rural Solomon Islands villages. To do so, the research team is conducting formative research to learn about current child faeces management practices, attitudes, motives (what makes people do or not do certain things related to child faeces management), and the different roles of men and women in childcare activities.

Talking about faeces and sanitationcan be uncomfortable for most people. Likewise, identifying your own motives for doing something that is normally a habit and talking about gender roles and norms can be difficult and complexTo overcome these difficulties, the research team opted to base the research interviews around pictures instead. Sometimes finding words to talk about difficult or complex and abstract topics can be daunting for participants, which is why the picture cards method is appropriate. Using picture cards means respondents can be prompted visually and externalise their replies, which helps to add richness to their responses.

Community members discussing the image cards. Photo: IWC.

 

It was important to the team that the picture cards we used were contextually relevant and culturally appropriate, which is why we engaged Solomon Islands artists to capture different situations related to daily household activities and child faeces management in rural Solomon Islands.

The picture cards tool is available to download and use from the project website here

If you would like to know more about the research project, please visit our project website.

Community members discussing the image cards. Photo: IWC.

 

 

CFM: The Solomon Islands Infant and Child Faeces Management project is managed by the International WaterCentre at the Australian Rivers Institute within Griffith University and delivered with our research partners Solomon Islands National University, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The research is funded by the Australian Aid’s Water for Women Fund. https://watercentre.org/research/research-impacts/promoting-safe-child-faeces-management-in-solomon-islands/

Community members receive research findings reports

By Senior Project Officer Diana Gonzalez Botero

During the first phase of the Pacific Community Water Management Plus (PaCWaM+) research, the teams in Solomon Islands and Fiji spent a week in each study community collecting data about community water management, household water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and health situations, water quality, sanitary risk assessment and the socio-economic context. 

After completing the data collection and analysis, the PaCWaM+ team delivered summary reports and posters back to these communities to inform them of the research findings.The four-page summary reporthighlights the key findings related to the WASH situation, strengths and weaknesses of the village water system management, people’s perceptions of the main issues in the community, and the key water management challenges experienced by residents. The report also includes key recommendations that community members and leaders can implement to improve their water services, as well as information about hand hygiene in the context of COVID-19.

The report also includes key recommendations that community members and leaders can implement to improve their water services, as well as information about hand hygiene in the context of COVID-19.

Copies of the village reports were presented to the Village Chief, the Water Committee, and the village nurse in each community. Additionally, posters were displayed in public places where all the community members could see them

The water committee members who received thesereports thanked the research team for conducting the research in their community and for bringing back the results. A water committee chairman from one of the communities said, “the report shares a very powerful message to the villageand noted that they have started planning how the committee can work together with the community to improve their water supply system and management practices based on the research findings. 

The PaCWaM+ project is managed by the International WaterCentre at Griffith University and delivered with our research partners, Solomon Islands National University and the University of South Pacific. The research is funded by the Australian Aid’s Water for Women Fund, and is supported by Plan International Australia, Live & Learn Solomon Islands, Habitat for Humanity Australia and Fiji. 

To learn more, visit: www.watercentre.org/research/pcwm