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，并寻找创造性的战略，以确保获得清洁的水，特别是在快速城市化的发展中国家的贫困城市和城市周边地区。 全球近8亿人无法获得饮用水。 这项研究将审查权力下放的社区机构是否可以改善城市周边地区获得饮用水的机会，同时促进发展中国家参与、赋权和社区发展等相关社会目标。 调查人员将研究以社区为基础的水用户协会（WUAs）在提供水和更广泛的社会效益方面的作用和表现。 由于许多国家的中央和公共供水基础设施和服务过度紧张，私有化改革往往未能改善穷人获得用水的机会，一些国家最近将注意力转向了用水者使用权办法。这些办法传统上用于农村供水，但人们对这些办法给城市周边贫困地区带来的机会和限制知之甚少。 这项研究的结果将为关于社区办法的循证政策提供信息，这些办法是在类似的发展中国家环境中改善贫困社区获得饮用水和发展的可行办法。 该项目还将进一步了解妇女、儿童和其他代表性不足的群体如何受到供水不足的影响，并探讨对负面影响的补救行动。 通过在马拉维最大和城市化最快的城市利隆圭进行的案例研究，研究人员将使用混合的定量和定性方法，涉及家庭调查，关键知情人访谈，焦点小组和城市政治生态分析框架所告知的二级数据分析，并通过共同池资源理论的见解来回答具体问题：（1）用水户协会的职能及其所采取的体制安排是否改善了城市周边地区的饮用水供应？(2)用水户协会、其体制安排和工作方式是否达到了地方参与、赋权和更广泛的社区发展的社会目标？ 通过整合城市政治生态学和共同池资源理论，研究使社区方法有效供水和提供社会效益的条件，调查人员将推进和丰富关于社区方法对城市周边供水和社会发展的作用的学术辩论，涉及的权衡，及其政策含义。

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.