Governance: What needs to be done to ensure COP26 goals are met

 'The climate crisis is a water crisis' 

A goal set for COP26 is to work together to deliver and this will be the central idea for today's blog post. Population growth, urbanisation, climate change and governance issues are all reasons why much of the SSA population still lack access to clean water. In the following blog post, I will aim to highlight how governance plays a large role in why Africa may be behind in terms of water and sanitation than the rest of the World. 

Why is reaching sustainability for water and sanitation difficult for Africa?

There are more actors involved with the development of water and sanitation in SSA compared to the rest of the world. In SSA it is not just the private and public sectors who are involved with decisions concerning safe water but also NGOs, civil society, and international donors. The facilities in SSA are more diverse including improved facilities like flushed toilets but also unimproved facilities such as hanging latrines and open defecation. A hanging latrine is a superstructure built over water that ensures privacy and excreta falls through the hole and into the water below. It results in direct pollution of water and is a cheap solution which can be built locally - but generally should be avoided. 

Figure 1: Image of a hanging latrine

Furthermore, the way in which Africans retrieve their water is from a diverse range of sources - for example, in Uganda water is retrieved through springs and dug wells to name a few. What largely differentiates the progress of water and sanitation in Africa when compared with the Western world is the informality that remains. Informality can make it harder to track the progress of safe water as it can slow progress when considering the sustainability of water and sanitation in Africa. Overall, due to the diverse range of ways in which Africans retrieve water and how they defecate, it may be more challenging to formulate a plan to ensure the sustainability of WASH conditions. More management may be required, which makes it harder to reach conditions of sustainability. 

The role of governance for Water and Sanitation

The main factor which sticks out when thinking of governance in Africa is the lack of accountability as there are often unclear roles within the governmental system. Therefore, the maintenance of secure WASH services could be harder in SSA compared to the rest of the world. 

1. Fragmented governance structures means there is lack of accountability with unclear roles making the maintenance of secure WASH services in SSA even harder. For example, in Dodowa, policies were decentralised to sub-national authorities which led to wastage of resources. 

 2. Low level of collaboration: local actors are often not included in the decision making process. The Kampala Capital City Authority excluded community members when discussing the drainage systems within their informal settlements which could be a huge concern as community members have first hand experience on where drainage is optimal and thereby should be included in any water decisions going forward. Local residents provide a unique form of knowledge about the area and will avoid otherwise less than optimal decisions. Also, it is common for local governments in SSA to not give a ‘voice’ to partake in decision making, especially those in informal settlements - this is the case in Kampala and Dodowa. INSTEAD, a process should elicit multiple forms of interaction and allow those who are most marginalised (e.g tenants) to participate in decision making and clearly outline the impact of any decisions made.

How do we improve governance then? 

A method known as transition management should be included in order to 'work together to deliver'. Transition management aims to address the unsustainability of WASH services in informal settlements across SSA. Transition management is a mode of reflexive governance which involves multi-actor experiments and supports the learning processes involved with sustainable futures. To ensure the success of transition management in leading us to sustainable WASH services, it should involve complex system thinking, sociological insights and governance theories.

We don't have time to discuss all the mechanisms that transition management tries to incorporate. One method to improve governance for water and sanitation in SSA is by triggering creativity for sustainability and best practices. The transition team should raise awareness on sustainability for WASH through field visits and other creative outlets. Amongst raising awareness, the transition team should make communities feel wanted and exchange ideas by getting a local representative to share best practices with other communities in order to start new collaborations for sustainable WASH services.