This paper investigates how water quality information influences water safety management in rural Kenya. The authors find that while poverty threatscapes and gender norms hinder behaviour change, test results can motivate supply-level managers to implement hazard control measures.
Published Article
Infrastructure alone cannot ensure resilience to weather events in drinking water supplies
The paper presents a novel multi-country empirical study measuring weather impact on water quality. Results show that weather-related shocks affect drinking water quality and health, requiring strengthened climate resilience that addresses management and infrastructure.
Invited perspective: Beyond National Water Quality Surveys: Improving Water Quality Surveillance to Achieve Safe Drinking Water for All (Sustainable Development Goal 6.1)
This perspective summarises a recent paper from the Joint Monitoring Program team (Bain et al. 2021), and recommends three key areas for capacity strengthening to advance water safety toward achieving SDG 6.1: better information through risk-based monitoring, improved institutional clarity on roles and responsibilities, and more investment in mainstream water safety planning.
Who does what and why? Examining intra-household water and sanitation decisionmaking and autonomy in Asutifi North, Ghana
This article examines two important aspects of decision-making around WASH: motivations behind a person’s actions, and the extent to which decisions are perceived to be solely or jointly made.
‘They will listen to women who speak but it ends there’: examining empowerment in the context of water and sanitation interventions in Ghana
This study explores the meanings of women’s empowerment in the WASH sector from the perspective of local stakeholders in the Asutifi North District, Ghana.
Geomorphic change in the Ganges– Brahmaputra–Meghna delta
More than 70% of large deltas are under threat from rising sea levels, subsidence and anthropogenic interferences, including the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) delta, the Earth’s largest and most populous delta system. This review describes GBM delta dynamics, examining these changes through the Drivers– Pressures–States–Impacts–Responses framework.
Individual choices and universal rights for drinking water in rural Africa
This paper seeks to understand which attributes of water services rural people value. The authors modelled more than 11,000 choice observations in rural Kenya by attributes of drinking water quality, price, reliability, and proximity.
River pollution and social inequalities in Dhaka, Bangladesh
This study seeks to understand the socio-spatial and seasonal inequalities in pollution risks in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The authors designed a direct observation method to record people’s daily river use activities across dry and wet seasons, complemented by monthly monitoring of river water quality, heavy metal and biotoxicity assessment a large-scale household survey along a 25km stretch of the Turag River and Tongi Khal in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Engaging with the politics of climate resilience towards clean water and sanitation for all
In this article, world-leading water specialists from academic and practitioner communities reflect on, and share examples of, the importance of keeping people and politics at the centre of work on climate resilient water security.
Optimizing rural drinking water supply infrastructure to account for spatial variations in groundwater quality and household welfare in Coastal Bangladesh
This study examines decision-making to invest in drinking water infrastructure in coastal Bangladesh, where increasing saline intrusion in aquifers intersects with high levels of poverty for the 20 million people living in the coastal region
