Doctoral Dissertation Research: Decentralization, Institutions, and Access to Potable Water in Peri-Urban Settlements

科学家们越来越感兴趣的是，快速的人口增长和城市化进程如何影响饮用水的供应，以及如何找到创造性的战略来确保获得清洁的水，特别是在快速城市化的发展中国家的贫穷城市和城市周边地区。全球有近8亿人无法获得饮用水。这项研究将审查分散的以社区为基础的机构是否能够改善城市周边地区的饮用水供应，同时促进发展中国家的参与、赋权和社区发展等相关社会目标。调查人员将审查以社区为基础的用水者协会在提供水和更广泛的社会福利方面的作用和表现。由于许多国家的集中式和公共供水基础设施和服务捉襟见肘，而且私有化改革往往未能改善穷人的用水机会，一些人最近将注意力转向了世界水协会的做法。这种方法传统上用于农村供水，人们对它们为贫穷的城市周边地区提供的机会和限制知之甚少。这项研究的结果将为以证据为基础的社区办法政策提供信息，作为改善类似发展中国家贫困社区饮用水获取和发展的可行选择。该项目还将促进对妇女、儿童和其他代表性不足的群体如何受到水的匮乏的影响的了解，并探索针对负面影响的补救行动。通过马拉维最大、城市化速度最快的城市利隆圭的一项案例研究，调查人员将使用混合的定量和定性方法，包括来自家庭调查、关键信息者访谈、焦点小组和由城市政治生态分析框架提供的次要数据分析的数据，并辅之以来自公共资源池理论的见解，以回答以下具体问题：(1)城市规划机构的职能及其采取的制度安排是否有助于改善城市周边地区的饮用水获取情况？(2)城市规划机构、其机构安排和运作方式是否达到了当地参与、赋权和更广泛的社区发展的社会目标？通过结合城市政治生态学和公共池塘资源理论来研究使社区方法能够有效地供水和提供社会效益的条件，研究人员将推进和丰富基于社区的方法在城市周边供水和社会发展中的作用、所涉及的权衡及其政策影响的学术辩论。

Scientists are increasingly interested in how rapid population growth and urbanization processes affect the provision of potable water, and finding creative strategies to ensure access to clean water, particularly in poor urban and peri-urban areas of rapidly urbanizing developing countries. Nearly 800 million people have no access to potable water globally. This study will examine whether decentralized community-based institutions can improve access to potable water in peri-urban areas while also promoting related social goals of participation, empowerment, and community development in developing countries. Investigators will examine the role and performance of community-based Water User Associations (WUAs) in providing water and broader social benefits. With centralized and public water-supply infrastructure and services overstretched in many countries, and privatization reforms often failing to enhance water access for the poor, some have recently turned attention to WUA approaches. Such approaches have traditionally been used in rural water supply, and little is known about the opportunities and constraints they offer for poor peri-urban areas. Findings from the study will inform evidence-based policies on community approaches as viable options for improving potable water access and development for impoverished communities in similar developing-country settings. The project will also advance understanding of how women, children, and other underrepresented groups are affected by poor access to water, and explore remedial actions for negative impacts. Through a case study in Lilongwe, the largest and fastest urbanizing city of Malawi, the investigators will use mixed quantitative and qualitative methods involving data from household surveys, key-informant interviews, focus groups, and secondary data analysis informed by an urban political ecology analytical framework, and reinforced with insights from common pool resources theory to answer the specific questions: (1) Have the functions of WUAs and the institutional arrangements they have adopted led to improved access to potable water in peri-urban areas? (2) Have WUAs, their institutional arrangements and modus operandi met social goals of local participation, empowerment, and broader community development? By integrating urban political ecology and common pool resources theory to examine the conditions that enable community approaches to effectively supply water and provide social benefits, the investigators will advance and enrich scholarly debates on the role of community-based approaches for peri-urban water supply and social development, the tradeoffs involved, and their policy implications.