Better the devil you know? A relational reading of risk and innovation in the rural water sector

Bibliographic Data

ID5288713
AuthorsJulia Brown (0000-0002-2719-7064, Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace Portsmouth PO1 3HE, corresponding author), Marije Van Den Broek (0000-0002-9489-3692, Department of Geography University of Portsmouth Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace Portsmouth PO1 3HE)
Year2017
Volume183
Issue3
Pages210-222
Publication date2017-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7398 • E-ISSN: 1475-4959
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/geoj.12215
OpenAlexW2613879651
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited20

This paper introduces an innovation - CBM-lite - designed by a small Ugandan non-governmental organisation (NGO) to remedy the shortfall of operation and maintenance (O&M) funds, identified as the key explanation behind the poor sustainability record of the community-based management (CBM) model. Without a radical change in government and NGO policy concerning post-construction support, the financing of hand pump O&M must come from communities themselves: hence the user pays principle is fundamental. CBM-lite aims to reduce hand pump downtime by replacing the voluntary water user committees with an incentivised water operator bolstering the user pays principle, and through an insurance-style micro-finance product that ensures funds are available for expedient repairs. This innovation refines organisation and governance arrangements of CBM, but as the rules of operation and enforcement of sanctions are communally arranged, remains within the existing institutional framework of CBM. Drawing on original and extensive ethnographic fieldwork, surveys and interviews, we argue that a relational reading of risk applied to an innovation that deviates from mainstream CBM goes some way towards explaining the intransigence within the rural water sector. This novel application of relational risk theory advances the conceptual and empirical contribution of geography to the conundrum of realising sustainability in the rural water sector. The known risks associated with CBM - a third of hand pumps being non-functional at any one time - may be seen as preferable to potential harm to ideology, to policy coherence, to organisational reputation, and to social and cultural norms. Finally, the study reconsiders current views about rural water management - notably the actual level of support for the user pays principle, key to both CBM and CBM-lite. Unpacking sectoral inertia assumes greater significance with estimates that 57% of the global population will be reliant on communally managed water sources by 2020

Business · Corporate governance · Economics · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Public economics · Sustainability · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Finance · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub