This paper draws on experiences of applying a cross-comparative approach (INITI8) combining community-based participant observation with focus group discussions in water security research across Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The authors reflect on the tensions and resulting re-work related to power dynamics in North-South and local collaborations, and on the socio-spatial inclusion implications of the research design, in particular definition of peri-urban areas and engagement with illiterate women in rural areas.
Research theme
Spatial and Seasonal Water Quality and Heavy Metal Pollution for Irrigation Use in Awash River, Ethiopia
Irrigation water quality impacts the agro-ecosystem, human health, and the overall well-being of the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate upstream municipal and industrial pollution impacts on irrigated farming and ecosystem health. The suitability indices and Heavy Metal Pollution Index methods have been used to identify the contamination extent and corresponding spatial and seasonal variability. Samples were collected twice per annum, i.e., during the low-flow season and high-flow season (rainy season) in the 2022/23 year. Results demonstrate that metal pollution is a serious concern that needs upstream quality monitoring.
From participation to empowerment the case of women in community‑based water management in hydrologically diverse southwest coastal Bangladesh
Women’s participation in water management institutions (WMOs) is seen as a vehicle for female empowerment and gender equity, yet this does not guarantee women are actively involved in decision making. This paper investigates opportunities for women’s empowerment via participation in WMOs in water insecure southwest coastal Bangladesh. Using qualitative research tools and methods, the study examines the extent and nature of women’s participation in WMOs and the factors that affect the level of participation in varying hydrological settings.
Rolling-out rural water regulation in Kenya: a review of progress and key processes
This document discusses the need for step-wise progression towards implementing the Guideline for the management of rural water and sanitation services published by Wasreb, Kenya’s water regulator in 2019. It combines insight from engagements with Wasreb, rural water service providers, and other stakeholders to identify where there is a need to develop, strengthen and/or clarify key processes.
Balancing growth and river protection in Bangladesh’s most important export industries
Balancing economic growth and river protection is a significant undertaking, but not an impossible one. This policy paper addresses the environmental, social, and regulatory complexities surrounding industrial production in Bangladesh. It examines how power dynamics in global supply chains influence state-market regulatory relationships and provides recommendations to strengthen state regulatory capacity, enhance civil society participation in regulatory processes, and strengthen public-private partnerships through global-local alignment.
Climate resilience and water security – Key messages from the REACH Kenya programme 2015-2024
This report from the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation (ICCA) at the University of Nairobi, Kenya provides a summary of key messages from research conducted under the REACH Kenya programme (2015-2024).
Ten years of REACH Kenya
A brief overview of work by the REACH programme in Kenya on interlinked groundwater systems, institutions, water quality management and reducing inequalities, illustrating milestones in the Kitui and Turkana Water Security Observatories.
Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises
This perspective paper in Nature Sustainability reframes responses to mitigating the world’s water crises using a ‘beyond growth’ framing. Beyond growth is systems thinking that prioritizes the most disadvantaged. It seeks to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation by overcoming policy capture and inertia and by fostering place-based and justice-principled institutional changes.
Unpacking the progression of climate uncertainty into precarity in the urban context of drylands: the case of floods in Lodwar, Turkana
Climate uncertainty has always existed both as a socio-ecological reality for pastoralists living with climate variability in drylands and as a component within climate modelling. Despite this, there is little consideration as to the experiences of poor people in the urban drylands living with intensified hazards. In response, this paper discusses an emerging conceptual nexus of uncertainty and precarity, using the example of flood disaster governance in Lodwar, Kenya.
Assessing flooding extent and potential exposure to river pollution from urbanizing peripheral rivers within Greater Dhaka watershed
This study looked into the water quality and flooding situation of Greater Dhaka for two successive monsoons through extensive river sampling coupled with the estimation of flooded area and exposed population using remote sensing tools.
