Paper short abstract:

Using unique data from Kilifi County, Kenya, this empirical study explores how intrahousehold decisions-making dynamics shape households’ water outcomes and water security.

Paper long abstract:

Households make a complex set of decisions on water source choice, quantity demanded, and the allocation of water across household members and activities. In many parts of the world, people choose from among multiple sources of water that are of different quality and reliability; many households may rely on unimproved sources of water, such as rivers, ponds, and open springs. The water sources chosen by the household and amount taken from each source may vary based the household’s access to different water sources; the household’s preferences and specific water needs; and costs and constraints in obtaining the water from each source. Demand for water in these contexts is often modelled to consider the households’ choices among water sources, the quantity demanded of water, or to take into account simultaneity between households’ source choice and the quantity of water taken from that source. In these models, the household is portrayed as a single decision-making unit with a single set of household preferences (i.e. a unitary household model). Power dynamics and the decision-making process within the household are not made explicit, and the fact that household members may have differing preferences is not taken into account. Yet, extensive work on unpacking household decision making has demonstrated that portraying households as a single decision-making unit is not appropriate. Using unique data from Kilifi County, Kenya, this empirical study disentangles how intrahousehold decisions-making dynamics shape households’ water outcomes and security.

Paper short abstract:

While policy-makers talk about climate change, communities across the Global South are busy adapting on their own account. Our paper examines how communities innovate local water governance institutions in order to support autonomous adaptation strategies, and what this means for water justice.

Paper long abstract:

Water is critical to the resilience of communities, and a key element in the autonomous climate change adaptation strategies whereby communities actively respond to climate change through their own collective or individual agency. Yet little is known about the institutional dimensions of such autonomous adaptation strategies, especially in relation to water: How do communities change and innovate local water governance institutions as they adapt to climate change, and what does this imply for water justice?

This paper examines how Maasai communities in Kenya innovate rules, norms and organizational mechanisms for water governance in order to facilitate their everyday climate change adaptation strategies. Drawing on a household survey and qualitative interviews we examine the nature and outcomes of institutional changes in water governance in three different land use settings in southern Kenya.

We find that these changes are characterized by creative processes of bricolage whereby community members mix customary, statutory and newly developed institutional practices, and combine both communal and private control of water and land in hybrid arrangements. We also find that these institutional innovations are conflictual and shaped by power relations – both within communities and with external actors - and that their development tends to favour the climate change adaptation strategies of some community members over others.

Our paper emphasizes the importance - and dilemmas - of supporting community led institutional change for just water governance in the context of climate change, and ensuring that poor households are not marginalised in the process.

Paper short abstract:

Focus is on gendered urban vulnerabilities at the household level and resultant inequities in access, based on a study conducted in a low-income, coastal community in Lagos, Nigeria. The paper problematizes the gendered bodily impact of water and sanitation poverty linking it with justice/policy.

Paper long abstract:

The mission of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 is to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a commitment to leave no one behind. This commitment is embraced not only by Nigeria but also by numerous other countries globally. While the conventional focus on measuring progress typically centres on assessing access to improved facilities, this approach often neglects the gendered dimensions such as ease and dignity of access, and the bodily experiences and impacts associated with access. The quality of access that an individual enjoys is determined by factors such as gender, geographical location, and economic capacity. The complicating factor of climate change further exacerbates this equation, with females experiencing distinct impacts from males, and the poor facing significant challenges due to water and sanitation poverty.

This paper delves into the "private" household domain, presenting key findings from conducted fieldwork looking at quality from the demand rather than the supply lens. Unlike standard measurements of improved/unimproved facilities, these case studies vividly illustrate the linkages between SDG 6 and the achievement of gender equality (SDG 5), as well as SDGs 1, 3, and 4—no poverty, good health and wellbeing, and quality education, respectively. This insight can empower policymakers to understand the gender dimensions of access and to strategically address these and associated barriers to water and sanitation access, crucial for achieving transformative and sustainable change—the overarching vision of SDG 6.