Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline
Water Resilience in Practice is co-edited by two experienced water sector professionals and reviews resilience in water supply service delivery in the form of a series of case studies from different economic contexts – ranging from low-income and fragile states to upper-income countries. It documents real experiences and reflects on the initiatives different service providers apply to strengthen resilience in practice. It describes how service providers respond, adapt, innovate and learn on an ongoing basis, and how they endeavour to meet challenges and provide water supply to users equitably and sustainably.
In recent years climate resilience in water supply has been a new emerging paradigm. In response it is helpful to document and record some up-to-date experiences, which can be consolidated in one place. However, it is also necessary to recognise the multiple pressures that water resources face, such as: population growth, increased water demands, existing climatic variability as well as climate change. These pressures are having a profound impact on water supply service delivery. In this context service providers and development professionals must take active measures to respond to these risks.
This book is primarily addressed to organisations and practitioners involved in planning, designing, managing and financing water supply programmes in urban and rural settings.
ISBN: 9781789061611 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781789061628 (eBook)
ISBN: 9781789061635 (ePub)
Chapter 7: Can and should refugees and communities that host them expect better performing and resilient water supply services?
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Published:December 2021
Ryan Schweitzer, St John Day, David Githiri Njoroge, Tim Forster, 2021. "Can and should refugees and communities that host them expect better performing and resilient water supply services?", Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline, Leslie Morris-Iveson, St John Day
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Abstract
During the acute phase of an emergency the priority for humanitarian agencies is to rapidly establish water supply and other basic services (e.g. sanitation, hygiene, and solid waste) for people affected by disaster or crisis. However, the immediate response to an emergency is relatively short in duration, while the services, particularly water supply, often need to meet the needs of affected populations for many years. Often crises are protracted in nature and it is therefore important to understand how service performance evolves and whether service users are satisfied with the level of water supply. This is an important consideration because long-term sustainability may not represent an important part of initial thinking by humanitarian agencies. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees estimates the average time spent by a refugee in a camp is 10 years, while the average refugee camp remains for 26 years. Two questions arise: first, how will humanitarian agencies ensure emergency water supplies reach the desired performance levels; second, how will local institutions be able to manage, modify and finance the services that camp or settlement dwellers and host communities will depend upon. In this chapter the authors explore experiences from two country case studies and monitoring data extracted from ongoing humanitarian crises. The main conclusions are: service level enhancements are often slow to materialise and widespread efforts are required to raise performance levels.