RIO+ Perspectives | Integrated Policy Briefs: Urban Waters (2018)

Volume 1 Issue No. 1 December 2018

Urban Waters

How does water impact and is impacted by cities and human settlements?

A publication of the World Centre for Sustainable Development / RIO+ Centre

The World Center for Sustainable Development, RIO+ Center, is a partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Brazil. It was created in 2013 in Rio de Janeiro as a legacy of the Rio +20 Conference of 2012, by a wide range of founding institutions, such as the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The mission of the Rio+ Center is to inform and inspire public policies and practices that lead to a more just and sustainable world, using evidence, promoting a broad-based dialogue and developing actions in alliance with other partners. One of the main objectives of the Center is to internationally promote the appropriation of a sustainable development paradigm that encompasses the economic, social and environmental dimensions in an integrated way.

Director a.i.: Niky Fabiancic Coordinator: Haroldo Machado-Filho

Editors: Lorena Camarena, Haroldo Machado-Filho, Lorenzo Casagrande, Rosaly Byrd, Aikaterini Tsakanika, Sarah Wotton Publications Manager: Lorena Camarena Art and Layout: Cesar Perri Cover photograph: Ricardo Gomes, Instituto Mar Urbano The views expressed in the Centre RIO+ Publications are solely those of the authors and should not be taken as representing the views of their respective institutions, the United Nations Development Programme, or the Government of Brazil.

Rights and Permissions – All rights reserved.

The text and data in this publication may be reproduced as long as the source is cited. Reproductions for commercial purposes are forbidden.

Some of the photographs used in this publication are licensed under the Creative Commons license; full attribution and links to the individual licenses are provided for each.

Editors’ note: We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of the authors for their generous and insightful contributions, without which this Issue simply would not have been possible.

Summary Addressing Water Challenges And Urban Informality: Lessons from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

6

Citywide Inclusive Sanitation: Achieving the urban water SDGs

10

The Challenges Of Guanabara Bay In Rio De Janeiro: A Showcase Of The Need For Integrated And Inclusive Source-To-Sea Urban Policies

13

Urban Water Challenges of India: The Case of Delhi

16

How Does Water Affect Cities and People?

The Case of the Greater Paris Sanitation Utility (SIAAP)

18

Cities And Water Security: The Role Of Local Governments

21

Managing Excessive Water Flows In Cities: Nature-Based Solutions

24

Charging For The Use of Bulk Water In Rio De Janeiro: Analysing A Sustainable Water Management System

27

Drainage Infrastructure In The Monterrey Metropolitan Area, Mexico: The Case Of The Pluviales Project

30

Foreword This publication is aimed to be the first RIO+ Policy Briefs by the RIO+ Centre with the purpose to discuss policy challenges across the globe from an integrated perspective that encompasses all dimensions of sustainable development - economic, social and environmental - and to provide policy recommendations to encourage the implementation of solutions that support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner.

This first issue of the Policy Briefs is devoted to “Urban Waters” and the question how water impacts and is impacted by cities and human settlements. The idea of this publication emerged during the 8th World Water Forum, held in Brasília, Brazil, in March 2018 where the Centre promoted a panel on this topic at the parallel event “SDG Planet”. Thus, this edition of the RIO+ Policy Briefs aims to build upon some of the discussions and debates initiated during the Forum.

photo: Rio+ Centre

Urban Waters How does water impact and is impacted by cities and human settlements?

Water is essential for human and animal life, for nature and for the economy. As a resource and commodity, it has a key function in our economic system, for food production, hygiene and health, energy and education. Water also forms biospheres and whole ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, bays and glaciers and is key for the planet’s biodiversity and climate. The lack of water is the origin of deserts, land degradation, poverty and human migration. In cities or urban areas, water is often exclusively seen as a means to serve our daily needs or taken for granted as part of the landscape without much awareness about how to assure its sustainability. Having entered a new era where the majority of the population lives in urban areas and where the growth of some cities continues at an accelerated pace, the sustainable management and caretaking of urban waters is key.

This publication aspires to discuss water in urban areas not only in terms of water management, governance and infrastructure, as well as their best practices, but also in terms of challenges and opportunities of water bodies as biospheres and ecosystems within and close to urban agglomerations. It will present a variety of international perspectives and examples, and focus on the integration of economic, social and environmental dimensions of the efforts described.

The briefs will be made available to policymakers, regulators, sectoral experts, academia, civil society, and the media. We hope it will be a timely contribution to the debate on how human settlements and water resources can co-exist in a sustainable manner, and that it will help spark further discussion.

Niky Fabiancic, Director i.a. RIO+ Centre

photo: Rio+ Centre

photo: M Kjellen

Addressing Water Challenges And Urban Informality: Lessons from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Marianne Kjellén, Senior Water Advisor, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Wilbard Kombe, Professor, Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University Gordon McGranahan, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a city of some 5 million residents, has around 500 million litres per day of water pumped into it. With about six households for every connection, the last census indicates that only about a third have water piped to their home or plot, almost a third have direct access to wells, and about a third rely on communal taps or water carted or trucked to their homes (see Table 1). Many of these sources, including piped connections, are intermittent or unreliable. As with many other services in Dar es Salaam, most citizens, especially the urban poor, rely on informal water supply sources and practices to meet their daily needs and enabling a better future. These include selfsupply networks from privately dug deep boreholes. Shallow wells are also used but largely for washing, cleaning and gardening.

Informal settlement, informal water provisioning, and the challenges and opportunities they pose for formal water utilities Informality of urban settlement and water provision is pervasive in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, as urban water utilities are purposed to deliver piped services to people’s homes and workplaces according to well-defined rules, they are not well suited to help people get the best out of patchy piped systems and the wide range of alternative and often informal means of providing services.

Informality refers to practices that are not condoned by officialdom but are not criminal either (Post 2018; Sinha and Kanbur 2012). Informal supply systems emerge where the formally planned and officially recognised system – usually piped – does not meet the needs of the water users. In many areas where the majority do not have connections of their own, some level of water service is provided through complex combinations of self-provisioning, civil society initiatives, private entrepreneurs, community organising, household sharing, and publicsector projects and programmes. Often the various water supplies, including those based on piped water, are only intermittently available, and households must rely on multiple sources and strategies.

Poverty-linked informality is almost inevitably an awkward compromise; the sort of political settlement few would openly approve of, with authorities implicitly accepting practices that they cannot fully condone.

Enforcing the regulations that prohibit these informal practices are in many contexts likely to make things worse. Informality leaves people behind, but supressing informality through stricter enforcement can actively exclude them from the city. This is the case for access to basic services such as potable water supplies or shelters.

Informality often breeds further informality, as land and water development are closely interconnected. Informal land development often takes place at a distance from the piped water system, as that is where land is cheap, and in this informal land development there is unlikely to be any provision in the layout of the plots and houses for their eventual connection. When the settlement density increases in an irregular fashion, the options for piping the neighbourhood and providing all homes or plots with connections become increasingly constrained, with important cost implications.

Informal systems display enormous innovation, but can also exacerbate environmental and health risks, reinforce social inequalities and impose economic burdens especially on the urban poor (Kombe and Kreibich 2006). This complex combination is evident in the case of Dar es Salaam.

Water Development and Distribution in Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam’s population has for many years been growing at over 5 per cent a year, with wards in the periphery of the city growing at far higher rates. The city has tried to respond to the growing water demand with large-scale transfers principally from the Ruvu River some 70 kilometres from the city (Kjellén and Kyessi 2014; Nobert and Skinner 2016). Most of the infrastructure for transmission and distribution was built during the 1950s and 1970s. The major urban expansion, however, has come at a much later date. Funding in recent decades has mostly been concentrated to maintain and expand abstraction, treatment and transmission capacity.

6

The formal piped system in Dar es Salaam directly serves about a third of the households – counted as those having piped water into the dwelling or to the yard/plot – see Table 1. Another third relies mainly on boreholes, wells or springs. These would typically be private sources of varying kinds of self-supply, but there are also boreholes-cum-water kiosks operated by the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA). The final third have indirect access to the other sources, relying mainly on public taps and standpipes – presumably including connected households reselling water or sharing with neighbours – and those purchasing by the container from carts, or from tanker trucks.

The majority of home-builders in informal developments use makeshift water and sanitation facilities that can be improved incrementally, as the household income and/or size expands or rental prospects increase. Formalisation of land rights is often a last stage that may take years to gain approval or await government support such as regularisation projects (Kombe 2005; Kyessi 2005). While this system is well suited to aspiring homeowners, and eventually increases the supply of affordable rental housing, it is largely unresponsive to issues of groundwater depletion and pollution, or the existing plans and future possibilities for piped water delivery.

Table 1 - Percentage distribution of households by main drinking water source for Dar es Salaam Region, based on 2012 census

The expanding ‘informal’ water supply systems are only indirectly connected to the ‘formal’ water system. The official piped water system has historically relied on surface water, and only a few boreholes are connected to the public water network (most of them from the socalled ‘emergency boreholes’ drilled during 1997, see e.g. Chaggu and Edmund 2002; Gomme 2016). Because of the informal nature of borehole and groundwater extraction, the situation remains poorly understood and little publicised. Estimates on the number of registered, existing and functioning boreholes vary greatly, as do their effects on the groundwater balances and the risk for or presence of salt water intrusion.

Facilities

Per cent of households (%)

Piped water into dwelling Piped water to yard/plot Public tap / standpipe Tube well / borehole Protected dug well Unprotected dug well Protected spring Unprotected spring Rain water collection Bottled water Cart with small tank/drum Tanker truck Surface water (river, dam, lake, etc)

20.1 12.9 18.8 18.9 7.6 4.2 0.3 0.2 0.1 1.2 7.0 8.4 0.1

TOTAL

100

Note: These are the “main” sources of drinking water, but households often use multiple water sources.

Source: United Republic of Tanzania (2015: Table 6.1: Percentage Distribution of Private Households

by Headship, Geographical Location and Main Source of Drinking Water; Tanzania, 2012 Census, Page 48)

Connected households enjoy an average tariff of about 1,700 Tanzanian Shillings per cubic meter, roughly equivalent to three quarters of one US dollar per cubic meter (EWURA 2017). This price is considerably lower than what households who access water through resellers or vendors pay (See e.g. Bayliss and Tukai 2011; Kjellén 2010).

Extending ‘post-development’ pipes to households in the dense informal settlements, and protecting them from damage, is difficult and costly.

Moreover, there may be people in these communities making a living, sometimes only a meagre one, from the informal sale of expensive water (Kjellén and McGranahan 2006). Many community-operated schemes have received important investment in terms of human resources, organisation and materials, from the community itself along with external NGOs and often the water utility itself. In this complex web of physical and social entanglements, the same innovations that improved water provision in the past can inhibit further improvements in the future. As informal settlements closer to the centre consolidate, the web of informal housing and water provision systems become locked in.

Regarding the challenges and contradictions that appear in relation to the mix of distribution channels, people with informal ways of accessing (often supply constrained) services can end up paying far more than they would if they had a formal household water connection (Bayliss and Tukai 2011; Kjellén and McGranahan 1997, 2006; UNDP 2006). The root of the water price contradictions lies in the fact that the high-income population is receiving a better service than the majority, without being charged a higher price for it. Yet, network expansion into informal or peripheral areas is very costly and would require closer coordination with the existing ways of informal supplies to those areas.

The challenges and opportunities informality pose for improving water services There are two broad areas of concern where formal and informal systems need to be harmonised if people are to secure better water services in the short term without compromising future water supplies, or severely limiting new housing opportunities for the rapidly growing population. The first relates to rapid informal urban expansion, meeting important housing needs, but supporting rapid population growth in areas where the groundwater aquifers are at risk, and the costs of extending piped water supplies are high. The second relates to the complex webs of informal systems, including water pipes, kiosks and vendors, that are serving critical short-term water needs, but are in danger of inhibiting the extension of ultimately more efficient and less costly piped water supplies.

photo: M Kjellen

7

A sizeable share of the informal distribution in Dar es Salaam operates with buckets and jerricans carried by pushcart vendors. In areas with larger houses fitted with larger storage facilities, tanker trucks cater for most of the out-of-pipe distribution. In the latest census this amounted to over 8 per cent (see Table 1). Water vending is a typically informal business, as they are unlicensed suppliers not under the purview of the regulator.

There are important social and economic advantages to extending water services to the plot or house of every citizen. Counting all costs, the individual piped supply is less expensive per capita – if resources are pooled and sequenced in a way to develop the system to serve all citizens (Kjellén 2009). Moreover, convenient water services pose the greatest potential to improve human health (Howard and Bartram 2003).

The integrity of the system also depends on how water connections are managed. Charging for connections is a way for utilities, or their staff, to generate revenue. Disconnection may result from the non-payment of water bills; leading to an additional fee for reconnection. For lowincome residents, however, connection costs can provide a greater disincentive than higher water prices and create antagonism between those within and those outside the system. While addressing a shortterm problem, these high costs can make it more difficult for the utility to deliver and charge for high quality water services to the people of Dar es Salaam.

Recommendations Achieving universal water provision in cities has the potential to serve the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. In cities where a large share of the population does not have direct access to piped water, many of the obstacles typically revolve around how land is being developed, how the piped water system is being extended, and a lack of coordination between the two. The lack of coordination is often complicated by informal land development and informal water provisioning. For both land and water, the informal systems often play an important role in meeting short-term economic and social needs. Hence, simply suppressing the informal systems can be disastrous. But the sharp division between the formal and the informal is not conducive to long term sustainable development.

First, water and land development are closely linked, and positive relations between formal and informal systems and practices need to be enhanced in and across both areas. More integrated urban water management (see e.g. Global Water Partnership 2013) suggests bringing multiple perspectives (environmental, social, economic, technical and political) and stakeholders together on the relationships with land use and various types of water resources (e.g. freshwater, wastewater, storm-water, surface- and groundwater).

Putting the households – people’s homes – at the centre of attention when it comes to water services planning could make an important difference. This would be consistent with the human rights-based approach, and supports the broader perspectives taken into more coherent planning processes.

Although the informal has emerged out of the shortcomings of the formal water supply system, the two systems are functionally related.

Some vendors buy water from the networked formal systems. At the same time the formal system recognises the existence of informal water suppliers, and some of them have been registered. A key policy issue is to improve the quality of informal water services by introducing checks and balances without undermining its important functions. There also needs to be ways of enhancing further improvement, including the introduction of piped services and/or water quality checks into informal or peripheral areas as they consolidate.

At present, there are few regulations or standards to check and guide consolidation or the development of land in informal settlements. This gives rise to enormous challenges for water and sanitation provision once a settlement consolidates (e.g. by excessive densities). The introduction of simple spatial measures and by-laws that can guide the structure of a settlement as it consolidates should be explored.

Arising from the above is the need to strengthen the capacity of the social and community level leaders and institutions, which represent the municipality at this level and are inter alia responsible for maintaining peace and order. Empowerment and capacity building among these grassroots institutions is central to improving the quality of water services.

Conclusion There is no silver bullet to resolving water issues in low-income rapidly growing urban peripheries or extending services when resources are scarce. As the formal and informal parts, or continuum, of Dar es Salaam’s water system are highly inter-related in terms of how water is distributed, and how people interact with the system, they must be addressed together. With most attention, regulation and investment presently being directed towards what can be characterised as the ‘formal’ system, the informal system with self-supply and vendors, needs to be taken much more seriously. Moreover, informality needs to be treated not as an obstacle but as part of a system that needs to be improved.

Acknowledgements This brief has drawn on a project funded by DFID EARH titled “The Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam, Khartoum and Mwanza”, led by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.

References Bayliss, K. and Tukai, R. 2011. Services and supply chains: The role of the domestic private sector in water service delivery in Tanzania. New York: United Nations Development Programme. (accessed 12 December 2018).

Chaggu, E. and Edmund, J. 2002. Ecological Sanitation Toilets in Tanzania. In 3rd International Conference on Integrated Environmental Management, Johannesburg, South Africa. August 27-30. photo: M Kjellen

8

Global Water Partnership 2013. Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM): Toward Diversification and Sustainability. Policy Brief (accessed 12 December 2018).

Gomme, J. 2016. Availability and sustainability of groundwater in Dar es Salaam and its potential role in meeting SDG 6. London: ESI Environmental Specialists.

Howard, G. and Bartram, J. 2003. Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health. World Health Organization. (accessed 12 December 2018).

Kjellén, M. 2010. Water Vending in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Calas, B. and Mumma Martinon, C.A. (Eds), Shared Waters, Shared Opportunities: Hydropolitics in East Africa, pp. 173-184. Dar es Salaam: French Institute for Research in Africa, Jesuit Hakimani Centre and Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers Ltd. Kjellén, M. and Kyessi, A. 2014. Dar es Salam: the development of water supply and sewage systems. In Tvedt, T. and Oestigaard, T. (Eds) A History of Water: Water and Urbanization, pp. 550-574. London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd. Kjellén, M. and McGranahan, G. 1997. Urban Water - Towards Health and Sustainability. Stockholm: Stockholm Environment Institute.

Kjellén, M. and McGranahan, G. 2006. Informal Water Vendors and the Urban Poor. London: IIED. March 2006. (accessed 12 December 2018).

Kombe, W.J. 2005. Land use dynamics in peri-urban areas and their implications on the urban growth and form: the case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Habitat International 29(1): 113-135.

Kombe, W.J. and Kreibich, W. 2006. Governance of Informal Urbanisation in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota.

Kyessi, A.G. 2005. Community-based urban water management in fringe neighbourhoods: the case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Habitat International 29(1): 1-25.

Nobert, J. and Skinner, J. 2016. Meeting future demand for drinking water supply in Dar es Salaam Hydrological modelling of the Ruvu River and assessment of flow.

London: International Institute of Environment and Development.

Post, A.E. 2018. Cities and Politics in the Developing World. Annual Review of Political Science 21: 115-133.

Sinha, A. and Kanbur, R. 2012. Introduction: Informality—Concepts, Facts and Models. Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research 6(2): 91-102.

UNDP. 2006. Human Development Report 2006. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. New York: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (accessed 12 December 2018).

United Republic of Tanzania. 2015. Housing Condition, Household Amenities and Assets Monograph. 2012 Population and Housing Census (Volume IV). Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: National Bureau of Statistics. (accessed 12 December 2018).

World Bank. 2012. Tanzania - Dar Es Salaam Water Supply And Sanitation Project (English). Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. (accessed 12 December 2018). photo: M Kjellen

9

photo: (c) D. Crosweller

Citywide Inclusive Sanitation: Achieving the urban water SDGs Christoph Lüthi Abishek Sankara Narayan Eawag - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Between 2015 and 2030, Africa’s population is expected to grow by 42 per cent or nearly half a billion people; Likewise, Asia’s population will grow by a similar number, although representing only 12 per cent growth in the continent’s population (UN DESA 2018). Most of this growth is projected to take place in urban areas, while rural population numbers will stagnate. Most cities lack the basic infrastructure and services needed for economic productivity, social inclusion and environmental sustainability, while inequalities within cities are persistent and widespread. The urban poor particularly lack access to adequate shelter, water, sanitation and health services.

Local authorities in developing cities often lack capacity in planning and implementation and therefore are ill-equipped to deal with this projected growth. In most countries of the Global South, urban infrastructure planning and programming is still top-down and follows an expensive, technocratic and “one-size-fits-all” networked system.

Governments and agencies in low and middle-income countries plan and develop water and sanitation services with limited participation of the urban poor, if at all. Even where governments follow a pro-poor approach such as in Ethiopia, their policies and investments have been hampered by an inadequate under¬standing of the needs, perceptions and coping strategies of the urban poor (ISF-UTS and SNV 2016).

a major contributor of untreated wastewater, creating hotspots for environmental degradation and public health hazards impairing social and economic productivity.

Most importantly, within the sanitation targets of SDG 6.2, for the first time, the focus is not only on toilet access, but on managing the entire sanitation value chain, encompassing containment, emptying, transport, treatment and safe reuse or disposal. This paved the way for a paradigm shift, where thinking goes beyond piped sewers (Ross et al.

2016). Developing cities are growing bigger and denser, with informal and peri-urban settlements often being underserved. To provide a citywide solution, an inclusive approach that embraces various scales of decentralised solutions such as faecal sludge management, container-based sanitation and other small-scale decentralised treatment systems, is required. Total sanitation coverage for rapidly expanding cities of the Global South will therefore need to comprise a mix of different contextualised solutions (Figure 1), including sewered areas (e.g. central business districts), decentralised or small-scale systems (e.g. specific residential developments or institutions) and faecal sludge management ecosystems (e.g. dense informal or periurban settlements).

The New Urban Agenda and SDGs The United Nation’s New Urban Agenda ensured member nations’ commitment in making cities more sustainable with special attention to water and sanitation services (UN 2017). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 different goals, among which water, sanitation and hygiene form Goal-6. Under this framework, there are separate targets for drinking water, water quality, water-related ecosystems and specifically, the universal, equitable access to ‘improved’ sanitation.

Globally, an additional one million persons have to get access to improved sanitation facilities each day to reach this goal by 2030 (Mara and Evans 2017). Although compared to rural areas, cities have better sanitation service provision, (WHO 2017), the latter is still

Fig. 1: Blended sanitation systems in urban settings (blue: sewered, green: decentralised systems, brown: on-site sanitation. © Eawag-Sandec 2018

10

Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (BMGF et al. 2017) is a novel concept that is gaining traction with several sector players including the World Bank and the Gates Foundation. CWIS thinking rests on four main actionable pillars: (i)

Prioritise the human right of citizens to sanitation – equitable and accessible for all;

(ii)

Deliver safe management along the whole sanitation service chain, from the toilet to safe treatment and reuse;

(iii)

Integrate sanitation in urban planning and renewal, providing liveable and sanitary environments; and

(iv)

Commit to working in partnership to deliver citywide inclusive sanitation, including formal and informal partners.

Clearly, citywide inclusive sanitation is cross-sectoral in nature and can contribute to the progress of other SDGs such as good health and wellbeing (SDG 3), gender equality (SDG 5), reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and sustainable cities (SDG 11). Through resource recovery and encouraging a circular waste economy, it adds to Goals 7 and 12, clean energy and responsible consumption (SuSanA 2017). As a corollary, the consequences of inadequate sanitation affect everyone, as human waste and its pathogens recognise no boundaries and spread freely across urban areas, therefore affecting many development goals.

There is no silver bullet for achieving total sanitation coverage, and therefore planning and programming for citywide inclusive sanitation with a coherent strategy requires rigorous planning. An integrated analysis of socio-economic, cultural, institutional and environmental conditions is critical. A planning process should ensure inclusion of the underrepresented communities and ensure stakeholder involvement at all levels. By incorporating local knowledge in this way, success rates of interventions could be increased (McGranahan and Mitlin 2016).

Further, this presents an opportunity for understanding the potential of resource recovery and its sustained use at the community level.

However, a detailed planning effort requires dedicated financial and time resources allotted to it to deliver the intended outcomes.

Policy Recommendations CWIS requires a clear policy framework to enable more inclusive and incremental sanitation solutions. In this policy brief, we present five suggestions that might enable urban sanitation planning and programming to move beyond the mainstream conventional solutions.

1. A more integrated and inclusive approach is needed to cover all urban areas. We argue for a blended approach that includes a menu of solutions such as faecal sludge management (FSM), decentralised or small-scale systems for areas too far from existing sewers and for the more affluent urban neighbourhoods, piped sewers (Reymond; Renggli and Luthi 2016). For blended solutions to be accepted, a concerted effort by academia, media and decision-makers to overcome the misconception that waterborne sewerage is the only acceptable sanitation technology, and that aforementioned alternative sanitation systems are temporary and stopgap solutions. An integrated approach also includes taking into account water supply, solid waste management and stormwater drainage, of the targeted location.

2. A more pragmatic approach to urban sanitation would entail

the avoidance of infrastructure plans that are often prepared with aspirational objectives, without a realistic consideration of what is actually achievable given the availability of existing resources and ignoring existing investments. The availability of financial resources for system upgrade is a common limiting factor and therefore, a more pragmatic approach is to plan for improvements in incremental steps, rather than in an ‘all or nothing’ fashion. It also would progress towards ‘some for all’ as against ‘all for some’ principle.

3. Planning for CWIS needs to be holistic and requires dedicated time, effort and financial resources. The planning process should revolve around informed decision making, must be inclusive of all the relevant stakeholders, and not just the municipality or urban water and sanitation utility. The process should ensure robust data collection of current practices, socio-cultural, economic and environmental aspects. This could be done through coproduction of local knowledge, where the members of local communities themselves, are involved in data gathering. Provision of funds to support the above and other consultation activities, including the development of dissemination and communications channels, help in reaching different stakeholder groups, since in these settings, stakeholder groups are not organised, and do not always have common engagement platforms for information exchange. Such an integrated participatory approach improves transparency of decision-making and promotes ownership among the community.

4. One of the inherent challenges with sanitation planning and programming is that they require a range of institutions and organisations to work together. Therefore, the level of commitment, capacity and the relationships between these institutions have a significant bearing on the planning process.

Coordination between different stakeholder institutions, each of whom has a related mandate and jurisdiction, is crucial.

City leaders need to leverage their power to drive a coherent citywide strategy and bring all major actors to the table, and on the same page set the functions and specific objectives of the improved services. Civic society, user communities, NGOs and other relevant actors, must be adequately represented, informed and consulted throughout the process. CWIS is less about technology fixes, and more about process-oriented solutions (Parkinson; Luthi and Walther 2014).

5. Although environmental considerations are implicit in sanitation planning, the subsequent part of the sanitation value chain, treatment and disposal/reuse, are often inadequate. That is evident, in low and middle-income countries, where access to ‘improved sanitation’ as evaluated until the containment and safe emptying is not tantamount to the wastewater / faecal sludge treated, with only 18 per cent of the domestic wastewater from on-site sanitation facilities actually being treated worldwide (UN-Water 2018). It is therefore important to build necessary treatment capacity for safeguarding the environment. Several low-cost alternative technologies are on the rise for municipal wastewater, such as the emerging advancements in naturebased solutions, all of which must be actively considered in the planning process.

Conclusion With rapid urbanisation in low and middle-income countries, the challenge of urban sanitation must be innovatively addressed adopting a more inclusive, decentralised and incremental approach. Successful CWIS requires consolidated efforts in coordinated, participatory 11

planning involving various stakeholders, and active consideration of management throughout the sanitation value chain.

References BMGF, Emory University, Plan International, University of Leeds, WaterAid and World Bank2017. ‘Citywide inclusive sanitation: a call to action’. (accessed 12 December 2018).

ISF-UTS and SNV 2016. ‘Are we doing the right thing? Critical questioning for city sanitation planning’, p. 33.

Lüthi, C., Panesar, A., Schütze, T., Norström, A., Mcconville, J., Parkinson, J., Saywell, D. and Ingle, R. 2011. Sustainable sanitation in cities - A framework for action. The Netherlands: Papiroz Publishing House.

Mara, D. and Evans, B. 2017. ‘The sanitation and hygiene targets of the sustainable development goals: scope and challenges’, Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 8 (1), pp. 1-16.

McGranahan, G. and Mitlin, D. 2016. ‘Learning from Sustained Success: How Community-Driven Initiatives to Improve Urban Sanitation Can Meet the Challenges’, World Development. 87(ii), pp. 307–317.

Parkinson, J., Luthi, C. and Walther, D. 2014. Sanitation21 - A Planning Framework for improving City-wide Sanitation Services, International Water Associaltion. (accessed 12 December 2018).

Reymond, P., Renggli, S. and Luthi, C. 2016. ‘Towards Sustainable Sanitation in an Urbanising World’, Sustainable Urbanisation, pp. 115–134.

Ross, I., Scott, R., Blackett, I. and Hawkins, P. 2016. ‘Fecal Sludge Management: Diagnostics for Service Delivery in Urban Areas Summary Report – Diagnostic Tools for Fecal Sludge Management Services in Urban Areas’, Water and sanitation program technical paper; Water and sanitation program (WSP). Washington, D.C. World Bank Group.

SuSanA 2017. ‘Contribution of Sustainable Sanitation to Agenda 2030’, pp. 1–19, SuSanA Vision Document.

UN-Water 2018. Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2018. (accessed 12 December 2018).

UN 2017. New Urban Agenda, Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III). (accessed 12 December 2018).

UN DESA 2018. ‘World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision’. (accessed 12 December 2018).

World Health Organization (WHO) 2017. Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines. Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2017. (accessed 12 December 2018).

12

photo: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/568155

The Challenges Of Guanabara Bay In Rio De Janeiro: A Showcase Of The Need For Integrated And Inclusive Source-To-Sea Urban Policies Aikaterini Tsakanika PhD Student in Public Policies, Strategies and Development Programme (PPED), Institute of Economy, UFRJ

Bays are often the tidal mouths of rivers, considered as the intermediaries between coastal ocean and inland waterways. Isolated from the main body of ocean water, bays provide an important and nutritional ecosystem for marine life, thus containing high biological productivity and sustaining fisheries. Such marine and coastal resources are vital in economic terms; as an example, the tax on the economic activities that use directly or indirectly the Baía de Guanabara, is estimated to generate BRL81 million (Young and Medeiros 2017).

Yet, unlike open coastlines, bays are more susceptible to retaining contaminants due to the restricted flushing of pollutants, low current velocities, and high rates of sedimentation (World Bank 1988).

In the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), the intense and, typically, unregulated growth, due to settlements and big infrastructures, suffocated and dramatically changed the natural streams and depositories of inland water, and even intruded the natural shorelines of Guanabara Bay (GB), the cultural and ecological value of which are an important reason for the inclusion of Rio de Janeiro in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Besides, the intense port activity and the heavy industry in RJ have developed with rather lenient environmental regulations, standards or legal restrictions having a significant impact on the local flora and fauna and local marine ecosystems, as well as on the local stakeholders that depend on these ecosystems for subsistence or recreation.

Water related policies and programmes in Rio de Janeiro Lack of sufficient funding and/or operational inertia have paused largescale infrastructure plans for waste and sewage management in the city of RJ. The state of Rio de Janeiro has launched a series of programmes for treating the GB, such as the Programa de Despoluição da Baía de Guanabara (PDBG), since 1990, which failed to be implemented properly despite international financing and the attraction of investments. The elaboration of state sanitation plans based on the National Policy on Solid Waste in 2010 has focused on unrealistic objectives rather than incorporating a more holistic vision that included both the sub-

products of sanitation into the production circle for the generation of alternative income and the intangible values of environmental protection (Lourenço 2017). The municipal plan published in 2015 for the integrated management of the residuals in the city of RJ stipulated environmental monitoring, amplification of the waste collection system and emphasis on the organic treatment of urban solid waste. Yet, the NGO Article19 (Article 19 2016) reported limited social representation and involvement of the municipalities, as well as limited transparency and access to information for the progress of the Program for Environmental Sanitation (PSAM) for the cities surrounding the GB. Moreover, established power systems and inequality have further marginalised citizens’ voices within the overall objective of cleaning the GB (Costa 2015). As a result, citizen engagement and activism are manifested through the creation of informal agencies and forums such as the Instituto Baía de Guanabara and Baía Viva.

The analysis of the National Water Agency (ANA) on the hydrographic region of the Southeast Atlantic, in which RJ state is placed, indicated that domestic waste and pollution were among the primordial causes of surface water degradation in urban areas (ANA 2012). The water supply crisis in 2014 intensified the conflict among users especially among highly urbanised areas and intense industrial activity, such as RJ (ANA 2018). Also, lack of consistent planning to address irregular users and to project the urban expansion, prolonged social inequality, particularly in peripheries. Furthermore, ANA`s institutional mission for the period 2016-2019 is to integrate freshwater resource management in both rural and urban settings, typically neglecting more holistic source-to-sea approaches (see Box 1), and thus contributing to fragmented sectoral policy implementation primarily in coastal ecosystems. Yet, among the proposed solutions listed were the expansion of water supply systems or transposition of water for other rivers, environmental restoration of natural vegetation and the sustainable use of soil under the State Programme for the Conservation and Revitalization of the Water Resources (PROHIDRO), as well as operational flexibility and water security through the integration of water supply systems and reuse and desalination of marine water.

13

Box 1: Source-To-Sea approach

Box 2: Blue Economy

The source-to-sea approach acknowledges the water system continuum that flows sediments, flora, fauna and pollutants from the upstreamwater sources to the receiving downstream ecosystems, and in some cases vice-versa, across territories and jurisdictions. Such perspective underscores the interdependence of inland and marine water systems as a premise for sustainable management. Under the integrated and indivisible framework of 2030 Agenda, the SDT 14.1 and 14.2 are highly correlated with the progress of the SDG 6, particularly for targets related to wastewater, sanitation, resilience to water stress, water use efficiency, transboundary collaboration and balanced ecosystems.

First elaborated at the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, aspires to appease the need for employment generation and protection of the marine ecosystems, in recognition of their value for the security of local socio-economic wellbeing.

Furthermore, Brazil’s decentralised system of governance instigated an unequal distribution of financial sources and disproportionate levels of administrative capacity across the municipalities (Egler and Gusmão 2014). In the absence of solid metropolitan institutions for the coordinated implementation of complex and costly inter-sectoral policies, inter-municipal initiatives thrived (ibid). Subsequently, the metropolitan region of RJ was established as a territorial intergovernmental and multifunctional autarky in 2015, yet the process of consolidating its function and organisation is still ongoing. Among its priorities for 2030 are transportation, housing and risk prevention from flooding.

Policy Recommendations Transparent public reporting and access to information motivate compliance by promoting trust among users with respect to implementation and enforcement processes as well as reduce corruption (SDTs 16.5 and 16.6). ANA’s national role in providing information, as the institutional manager of national water resources, could prove to be strategically important for establishing a holistic and systemic vision. In this regard, ANA particularly proposes for the watershed committees to incorporate an integrative function that would allow the constant and harmonised exchange of technical and institutional information. Yet, in practice, there are some challenges in the process of integration of coastal management planning, due to the different territorial reference of the management systems, and the disregard of the effects of the coastal hydrodynamics on water resources.

The 2030 Agenda and subsequently the New Urban Agenda, developed during the Habitat III conference of the UN, reinforce sustainable urban and territorial planning and development by incorporating important ecological services and social functions of fragile ecosystems such as the bays to absorb unnecessary pressures to oceans, seas and fresh water bodies (UN 2017), and to decrease local vulnerabilities (coastal erosion, desertification, ocean acidification, sea-rise levels, and salinisation of the water bodies) in the event of extreme natural phenomena. Dynamic ecosystem-based solutions and the strong orientation towards climate change mitigation and adaptation need to be a key element of urban management planning, with a view to reduce the costs of urban infrastructure recuperation and to anticipate future integration with other sub-urban areas.

Furthermore, the incorporation of the “Blue Economy” (see Box 2) principles into the urban planning of the metropolitan area of RJ could reinforce the international precedents aiming for more sustainable urbanisation solutions as depicted in Habitat I, II, III and SDG11 in particular.

Accordingly, investments should be prioritised for the optimisation of both the sea transport systems and the heavy industrial activity, a necessary condition to redirect the economy to ocean related knowledge (SDT 9.4), as well as the encouragement of innovative cross-sector initiatives that upgrade the role of the natural units of ecosystems, the GB in this case. Also, the highly urbanised coastal municipalities of RJ should invest in ocean-related knowledge (SGT 14.A), and provide incentives for an innovative and integrated wastewater management system that uses wastewater as a cost-efficient and sustainable resource of energy and soil nutrients (WWAP 2018), while considering the tipping points of the bay’s resilience in response to the aggregated pressures of the wastewater disposal system (SDT 14.1,14.2 and 6.6).

In the case of RJ, the subcommittees of the Watershed Committee of GB (CBH-BG) present a significant variety and disparity in membership, status, know-how, administrative capacity and financial autonomy.

These constraints, in addition to conflicting agendas, power asymmetries and lack of proper dissemination of information, prevent natural resource users or civil society representatives in the metropolis from full and meaningful participation in the decision making. Hence, the empowering of citizen participation (SDT 11.3) is primordial and would require, among other things, targeted communication with the employment of artistic means to identify shared values and priorities, or common risks among state and non-state actors. Most importantly, as the targets on transparent institutions (SDTs 16.6 and 16.7) uphold, consolidated institutional means to reinforce the transparent, qualified and equal participation in the processes that define and set those priorities and values, may allow better and more suitable public policy adaptation to the local and regional realities, and, ultimately, may lead to more accountability from all counterparts involved.

Moreover, decentralised international cooperation for integrated and participative governance could strengthen the local authorities and provide resources for bottom-up informed solutions. According to SDT 17.16 on the international cooperation for knowledge sharing, global connectivity as well as coordinated and integrated management and knowledge sharing can act as incentives for better management. For instance, the initiative of the University of Maryland to replicate the scientific methodology applied to the management of the Cheasapeake Bay, provided with recommendations and participative workshops, identify the elements of a successful bay restoration for RJ (Maryland University 2013). In this regard, a network of coastal cities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and across the globe could facilitate the sharing of ideas, resources, and perspectives relating to urban planning as well as water and marine resource governance.

Concluding Remarks The concerns over the inland water resources governance and management of natural coastal landscapes have emerged due to exponential economic and human development processes as reflected in highly urbanised agglomerations. Over time, targeted policies and programmes strived to surmount the serious repercussions of urban development on natural coastal landscapes and ecosystems of the iconic Guanabara Bay to no avail. If integrated water management policies are seriously developed −taking into account balanced concerns related to economic production and social inclusion, as well 14

as coastal and marine conservation based on the 2030 Agenda −, its recuperation may become an important showcase for coastal urban development.

References ANA (Agência Nacional de Âguas) 2012. Panorama da qualidade das águas superficiais do Brasil: 2012, ANA Website, (accessed 12 December 2018).

ANA (Agência Nacional de Âguas) 2018. Brazilian Water Resources Report – 2017: Full Report, Website of the Sistema Nacional de Informações sobre Recursos Hídricos (accessed 12 December 2018).

Article19 2016. ‘Novo relatório analisa a transparência nos programas de despoluição da Baía de Guanabara’, (accessed 12 December 2018).

Costa, M. A. M., 2015. From mud to chaos: an estuary called Guanabara Bay. Cadernos Metrópole, 17(33), 15-39.

Egler, C. A., and Gusmão, P. P. 2014. Gestão costeira e adaptação às mudanças climáticas: o caso da Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Revista de Gestão Costeira Integrada, 14(1), 65-80.

Lourenço, 2017. Rio de Janeiro aquém de 2016: A oportunidade adiada para despoluição do complexo de rios, de lagoas, e da Baia de Guanabara. Texto para discussão. Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada - Brasília Maryland University 2013. Guanabara Bay Project. Maryland University website: https://www.umces.edu/guanabara-bay-0 (accessed 14 December 2018).

UN (United Nations) 2017. ‘New Urban Agenda’. Habitat III website, (accessed 12 December 2018).

Young C.E.F. and Medeiros, R. 2017. ‘Baía de Guanabara: um olhar econômico’ in Baía de Guanabara. (accessed 12 December 2018).

WWAP (United Nations World Water Assessment Programme)/UN-Water 2018.

The United Nations World Water Development Report 2018: Nature-Based Solutions for Water. Paris, UNESCO (accessed 12 December 2018).

15

photo: Shutterstock

Urban Water Challenges of India: The Case of Delhi Nitya Nanda The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Delhi is the largest urban agglomeration in India, and it also faces one of the most complex set of urban water challenges in the country. With an estimated population of 28.5 million, it is the second largest urban agglomeration in the world only after Tokyo, which has a population of about 37.5 million. Delhi became the capital city only in 1911, but it has been the capital of various kingdoms and empires for several centuries, chosen mostly due to its proximity to Yamuna, a perennial river. In Delhi, the Aravalli mountain range meets the Gangetic plain and the river Yamuna. The city is located on the Aravalli range side of the Yamuna with rocky soil that ensures that it is not affected by bank erosion or flooding (as compared to the eastern side of the river).

The river Yamuna has been worshipped by the Hindus as goddess Yamuna, the daughter of the Sun God Surya, and the sister of Yama, the God of Death. It was believed that by taking a bath in the river one could avoid death as Yama could not harm a person who has already been blessed by his sister. Essentially it meant that the quality of the water in Yamuna was so high that one could avoid illnesses. Today the Yamuna, particularly after it enters Delhi, is the most polluted river in the country. The river’s fall from grace also epitomises the water challenges of Delhi and its surrounding region. Delhi shows how the inability to manage water ecology and sanitation can lead to difficulties in ensuring access to good quality water.

In the context of urban water challenges, providing drinking water and sanitation facilities to all at affordable costs, maintaining water ecology including the protection of rivers, lakes and aquifers from pollution, and protecting people from possible flooding are the major issues.

Making clean water accessible to every household in sufficient quantity and at affordable cost is a major challenge in almost all cities in the developing world. But Delhi faces shortages in terms of the overall availability of clean water despite the River Yamuna flowing through the heart of the city. This is because the river is not only dry for half of the year but also it is so polluted that often it has been called a “sewage drain”. There are several barrages on Yamuna which do not allow even a minimum flow down the main river. The most damaging is the barrage at Hathnikund about 200 km upstream of Delhi which diverts

the entire water to Eastern Yamuna Canal (EYC) and Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) leaving the main course totally dry during the dry season.

As a result, the otherwise perennial river Yamuna is not even able to supply the drinking water requirements of Delhi (Nanda et al 2015).

The installation of major irrigation systems in the Yamuna basin started in the fourteenth century when, what is now known as Western Yamuna Canal, was constructed. But it had fallen under disuse. The British East India Company, almost immediately after the establishment of their suzerainty in this part of the country, decided to reconstruct the WYC in 1818, which was completed in 1823. Immediately after this, they initiated the EYC project which opened in 1830. Both canals begin at about the same height of the river Yamuna and were followed by the construction of several other canals (Chaturvedi 2012).

Thus, river Yamuna has an early history of the major diversion of river water for agricultural use. What makes this problematic today, is its extension, impeding a minimum ecological or environmental flow in the river. The need for a minimum flow was highlighted in a 1999 judgment of the Supreme Court of India, which enacted that the government should to ensure a minimum flow of 10 m3/s in the Yamuna River as it flows through Delhi. However, the decision was taken in the context of improving the water quality of the river rather than maintaining the river ecology. Even though the current policy considers maintaining water ecology to be an important issue, the principle has not been translated into practice and there has not been a lot of research into what the minimum ecological or environmental flow in a river at a particular point should be.

Diversion of water is not the only reason for the drying of the river.

During the rainy season when the river is full, the neighbouring aquifer gets recharged, and when the dry season starts the same water gets discharged into the river. However, for this to happen, the river bed has to be substantially lower than the ground level. Himalayan rivers are known to carry substantial amounts of sediment and due to the construction of several barrages (there are three barrages on Yamuna within the geographical limit of Delhi), the river bed level has raised 16

as a result of the deposition of silt, thereby reducing the dry flow of the river during the dry season. This has been further aggravated by the excessive withdrawal of groundwater for agricultural and other purposes. Mindless encroachment and construction in the river floodplains further aggravated this problem. This raised riverbed level has increased the incidents of floods that affect the poor and vulnerable.

Water Sources of Delhi

Without the river water, Delhi and its surrounding urban regions are depending more and more on groundwater for their drinking water and other needs leading to a reduction in the ground water level. As a result, about 700 lakes and water bodies have now dried up. In Delhi, there are several step-wells, locally known as baoli. The one in central Delhi had water even a decade ago but it has now dried up allegedly due to the construction of the Delhi metro. The construction of highrise buildings is also responsible for the drying up of groundwater. Delhi is now located within a region that is among the top global hotspots where groundwater is depleting fast.

The drying up of water bodies have meant that for many poor people the source of their water supply has vanished. Water bodies are also linked to the livelihoods of many people working in fisheries and water tourism. These livelihoods have also been lost. While many farmers are still growing vegetables in the Yamuna floodplains, these vegetables are not fit for human consumption due to toxic waste discharged by the city that is unable to be washed away due to the lack of available water, thereby making the whole ecosystem highly toxic. These vegetables and fish from the river are consumed by people in areas close by to it, which is a serious hazard to their health.

In India the established norm is to supply 135 litres per capita per day in big cities. While most cities do not supply as per the norm, the city of Delhi supplies much more. But the average can be misleading. Nearly 40 per cent of urban households in India have no access to public supply and have to depend on other sources of water (IIHS 2014). In the case of Delhi, in 2011, about 19 per cent of households did not have a piped water supply (Joshi 2011). There is substantial inequity even among the households with a piped supply. Poor people with no piped supply, source water from informal suppliers and pay much higher prices not only in terms of nominal costs but also in terms of the time used to collect their water. Considering their prevailing role as household managers, involving washing, cooking and procuring food and water, women are the worst sufferers of this situation.

Water has often been the cause of violent conflicts among neighbouring families occasionally causing death (Safe Water Network 2016 and Several News Reports). Since informal suppliers source their water illegally from bore wells taking it from the public supply, government crackdowns on this can make the poor people worse off.

source: Delhi Jal Board

Urban water challenges in Delhi cannot be seen in isolation as they are closely linked to water challenges in surrounding rural areas, particularly for agricultural use. Delhi has to go a long way in terms of harvesting rainwater and recycling waste water. While the recent policy for the free supply of up to 20,000 litres per household per month and progressive pricing beyond that has reduced wastage, not much has been done to bring equity in supply by ensuring access for the poor and vulnerable.

The implications that inadequate water management has on education, women, poverty, health, sustainable agriculture, peace, justice and responsible production and consumption – exemplified here in the case of Delhi – shows that achieving the Sustainable Development Goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of clean water and sanitation for all, requires an integrated approach to the problem as well as to the solution and public policies and programmes need to be implemented in a coordinated manner.

References Chaturvedi, Mahesh C. 2012. India’s Waters: Environment, Economy and Development, Boca Raton, CRC Press.

IIHS 2014. Urban Water Supply and Sanitation in India, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Human Settlement.

Joshi, Varsha. 2012. Houses, Household Amenities and Assets: Drinking Water, Census of India 2011, NCT Delhi, New Delhi, Directorate of Census Operations, Delhi, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Poor Access to Drinking Water Nanda, Nitya, Abu Saleh Khan and Krishna Dwivedi. 2015. Hydro-politics in GBM

The conflict is not limited to urban undersupplied localities. Delhi now sources water not only from Yamuna, but also rivers like Ganga and Sutlej which are far away and do not flow through Delhi. Even the major part of Yamuna water is not sourced directly from the river, but from the Western Yamuna Canal which flows through the state of Haryana.

Delhi has seen bitter fights with Haryana including in courts about the sharing of the water. Delhi now also depends on several other states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh for its water supply.

Basin: The Case of Bangladesh-India Water Relations, New Delhi, TERI Press.

Safe Water Network. 2016. Drinking Water Supply for Urban Poor: City of New Delhi.

New Delhi, Safe Water Network.

17

photo: SIAAP

How Does Water Affect Cities and People? The Case of the Greater Paris Sanitation Utility (SIAAP) Jacques Olivier General Manager of SIAAP

Since the 1960s, large scale investment in wastewater treatment capacity led to a significant improvement in water quality. This was achieved by the interconnection of six plants and real time optimisation of the Greater Paris sanitation system. As a consequence of this improvement, fish are back in the Seine: we count 33 species today while there were only seven left in the early seventies.

• a growing place in urban development to cope with the needs of its citizens providing them a better quality of life;

Large cities, “Mega-cities”, like Paris, will now need to meet new challenges such as a growing population in their suburbs. More importantly, they need to consider their impact on the natural environment at a greater scale, on the atmosphere and further downstream, even on ocean wildlife.

• Cooperation: promoting powerful and effective synergies among urban water management services, rivers, sanitation, recreation and urban planning.

The focus of the Greater Paris Sanitation Utility’s (SIAAP in French) operations and its Resource and Development (R&D) department are being directed towards preventing climate change, the growing concentration of persistent pollutants in the ecosystem and the accumulation of plastics in the ocean.

At the same time as the population is growing, and so the anthropogenic pressure on natural resource increases, the expectations of the population in terms of quality of life are also developing. Breathing fresh air but also having more possibilities for leisure and outdoor activities, such as swimming in rivers and lakes, are becoming a normal expectation for inhabitants of Paris or any other Mega-city.

Answers to these new challenges and expectations are manifold and less technical in comparison to the solutions for challenges from previous decades.

SIAAP, favours a holistic approach such as the one proposed in the UN 2030 Agenda with its 17 objectives to transition the world towards sustainable development. SIAAP has therefore translated the major issues of this agenda into a long-term strategic plan called SIAAP 2030, with the following three concepts at its core: • Universality: the wastewater system is part of a “water wise smart city” in a context where the water cycle of the city occupies

• Communication: in its external communication, SIAAP aims to make every person recognise their role in shared environmental responsibility;

The Paris Example: Listening to popular demand to improve inhabitant’s appropriation of natural resources One of the emblematic projects, aiming to achieve the vision of a waterwise city with a strong focus on its inhabitants, is to make the Seine swimmable, to meet the demand from the population for a new use of the river: water recreation.

France, the city of Paris and the Seine-Saint-Denis department will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024. Two swimming events will be organized in the Seine, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the triathlon event and the open water swim.

The nomination file indicated that the stakeholders want to leave a legacy of the Olympic Games, in the form of an improved river water quality to a level that allows swimming access for the local residents from the region.

SIAAP aims to support the Paris region sustainable development effort by improving the bathing conditions of the Seine and contributing to the energy transition towards a carbon neutral city.

Headed by a board composed of 33 local elected representatives from four departments, SIAAP is a member of the “basin committee”.

The basin committee is a kind of water parliament, linking Paris to its upstream catchment, where water management policy is discussed 18

by water users with elected representatives from cities, industries, farming, environmental and consumer associations, state authorities and so on.

Thanks to the work of the basin committee, a great improvement in the Seine water quality has been achieved over the last twenty years as a result of the renovation of networks, modernisation of wastewater treatment plants by the addition of nitrogen and phosphorus treatment modules, creation of storage tanks and use of artificial intelligence to manage wastewater flows.

These achievements contribute to the confidence that future projects, planned within the basin committee framework, will enable swimming in the Seine. This will send a positive signal to people with regards to water quality improvement.

New environmental expectations are likely to encourage greater citizen involvement in city water management and resource management.

Green infrastructures improve the city landscapes whilst enabling better stormwater management. More green and blue infrastructures in the city will ultimately preserve biodiversity and mitigate the effects of heat in densely urbanised environments. The importance of sanitation in Mega cities goes therefore beyond its first purpose of cleaning wastewater and becomes a key component in improving the citizens’ quality of life and public health.

A feeling of environmental insecurity manifests itself in fears about the contamination of the environment by various pollutants. Drug residues, endocrine disruptors and the ever-re-examined confidence in the quality of tap water contribute to this, creating a feeling of distrust in experts and institutions.

Taking societal expectations into account is therefore at the heart of the “SIAAP 2030” strategic project, whilst taking also into account the affordability of the service and responsible cost management.

Trust-generating communication is essential as we need to accelerate ownership of the SDGs by all stakeholders, from the people to institutions. A race against the clock to save the planet commits everyone to find ways to limit the negative effects of human activities on our resources, biodiversity and the climate. It is therefore necessary to adopt a universal, evidence-based communication strategy that reaches out to all audiences and stakeholders. We must also be uncompromising in fostering this kind of common effort.

The need for partnership work and a master plan Regarding swimming in the Seine, the challenge remains to achieve sufficient bacteriological quality. The European Water Framework Directive defines good environmental status based on physicochemical parameters but does not refer to bacteriological conditions. In other words, there should be no fences in the bathing areas. The existence of Escherichia coli and total coliforms bacteria in water are two indicators of contaminants that should not end up in the natural environment. They are comparable to disinfection targets in swimming pools. Nowadays SIAAP has a master plan to achieve this goal.

only treat nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus but not bacteria. During stormy events, whether swimming is allowed or not, extended storage capacities could be necessary to retain water and send it for treatment afterwards.

The objective is very ambitious and relies on the SIAAP’s sanitation master plan platform, which brings together the departments, the region, the municipalities, the Basin Agency, the state authorities and so on. Such a broad participatory approach is all the more important for assessing the situation and jointly working together to identify solutions resulting in a shared action plan.

In order to quantify the discharges (treatment plants, Combined Sewer Overflows, etc.) and to prioritise them, a “hydraulic and quality” modelling study was carried out. This work, conducted from 2017 - 2018, made it possible to define an action plan that includes the following achievements: • Compliance of all the household connections, especially on separated sewerage networks; • Removal of boat discharges (moored or on river); • Reduction in the stormwater discharge volumes from the sewage networks by disconnecting five per cent of the upstream impervious surface; • Real time optimisation of network operation in rainy weather; • Discharge disinfection from Seine-Valenton and Marne-Aval plants: trials are in progress to assess the effectiveness of using a performic acid injection as a disinfectant compared to using a UV solution.

SIAAP also intends to develop smart system software to provide an early warning system of the bathing water quality in order to help authorities to manage each bathing area and improve the real-time management of the bathing water system.

The tool will incorporate two main innovations: (a) an advanced statistical machine learning model for early and robust water quality prediction and (b) the fast measurement of bacterial contamination coupled with SIAAP’s real-time control system. It will also be associated with new mobile applications to inform key decision-makers and citizens of the bathing water contamination related risks. This system must be developed before its operational implementation. The SIAAP has recently partnered with the cities of Milan, Sofia, Copenhagen, Paris and Berlin. This has initiated advanced projects on this topic, similar to those by many other European actors, such as cities, research institutes and start-ups, to submit a proposal to obtain funding for the Horizon 2020 initiative from the European Union.

This plan concerns all local authorities who will have to, for instance, correct illegal connections that pollute the Seine. It should be kept in mind that five litres of sewage, the equivalent of a toilet flush, contaminate 50 cubic metres of bathing water. It is also a question of organising collection systems for the polluted water from moored and sailing boats, none of which is done today. In sewage treatment plants, disinfection systems must also be implemented. They currently 19

photo: SIAAP

20

photo: Estela Neves

Cities And Water Security: The Role Of Local Governments Estela Maria Souza Costa Neves Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Institute of Economics Postgraduate Programme in Public Policies, Strategies and Development / PPED. Researcher at the National Institute for Science and Technology in PPED / INCT-PPED

The Earth’s water resources are characterised as finite, sensitive and irreplaceable (UNEP 2009), and are essential for all aspects of life and development. Nowadays, access to water is under pressure from misuse, decreasing water availability, depletion of water resources, increasing water demand, ecosystem degradation, and growing pollution, evidenced by water supply crises in several regions including the Middle East, India, Italy, the USA and Brazil. In 2017, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned the UN Security Council about escalating tension and disputes over access to clean water, both among communities, population segments, and countries, as “strains on water access are already rising in all regions”, noting that by 2050, no less than 25 per cent of people will live in countries without enough access to clean water (United Nations 2017). Strategies to promote sustainable water management should also consider the uncertainties and additional pressures brought about by climate change.

Within this framework, water security issues stand out as major policy challenges. What exactly, however, does water security consist of?

At which level should this issue be addressed? In this text, it will be attempted to briefly familiarise the reader with the topic from the perspective of city governance, with references to cases in Brazil.

Water security: An emerging concept Water security is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of water issues - in particular the governance dilemmas pertaining to its scarcity, difficulty of access, contamination, low quality, droughts and floods. Essentially, water security concerns the need to ensure clean and amply available water for both human beings and the ecosystem (Strickert et al. 2016). Arisen in the academic realm during the 1990s and incorporated into the political milieu over the early 2000s, currently the expression is widely used in official documents and government statements, as a subject of academic research, a common media topic, and it has been included in the agendas of social movements and civil society organisations.

Most of the available definitions of water security fall under four aspects: quantity and availability of water, risks and vulnerability, human needs, and sustainability (Cook and Bakker 2016). In 2013, the UN agencies that comprise UN-Water formulated a definition that has been widely adopted, integrating several aspects, which defines water security as “(t)he capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” (UN-Water 2013).

The promotion of water security encompasses several spatial dimensions, from residential units to urban agglomerations and national territories. These address human needs, ecosystem services, economic activities, disaster prevention, and the protection of the natural systems responsible for water production. Thus, water security policies require both the development of a strategic long-term vision as well as short-term and emergency measures to address hazardous situations, collapses as well as vulnerable areas and groups.

Except in extreme circumstances where clean water availability is next to nil, water security deals less with the physical availability of water and more with decisions pertaining to the access and distribution to different users under constrained situations marked by scarcity (see Box 1) – not only physical scarcity, but also socioeconomic scarcity.

Considering biophysical and socio-political processes inseparable, political ecology researchers draw our attention to the relevance of asking ‘water security for who?’ and to the interdependencies with other security resources such as food, energy and climate (Zeitoun 2013). Finally, there is an unequal distribution of water scarcity costs: water crises always present inacceptable higher levels of risk for most of the world’s poorest people (Grey and Connors, 2009).

21

Box 1: Water Scarcity Hydrologists assess water scarcity as a population-water equation: when annual water supplies drop below 1,000 m3 per person, the population faces water scarcity, and below 500 cubic meters absolute scarcity (United Nations 2018). However, water scarcity may be considered from more points of view, such as a crisis related to a lack of services that provide safe water and as a crisis caused by scarce water resources (UNDP 2006), as well as a process related to governance failures.

Public policies: Water security and cities At the global level of the United Nations, there is no separate UN entity dedicated exclusively to water issues. Unlike themes such as climate change and biodiversity, water security still lacks a global framework agreement between all member states. Nevertheless, freshwater management and water security issues have drawn increasing attention in view of integrated sustainable water management during the last decade. The affirmation of access to clean drinking water as a basic human right has been acknowledged by the United Nations General Assembly since 2010 (UN 2010). Finally, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by Heads of State and Government at a special UN summit in September 2015, was a landmark achievement that recognises water challenges amongst many others. They were included among the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, especially in SDG6, to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all and to achieve, inter alia, by 2030, universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all (Target 6.1) and to ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity (Target 6.4).

At national level, in most countries water scarcity and vulnerability issues have been addressed by sectoral policies: most existing measures of water security are developed at central and watershed levels, tackling only some part of the problems to be addressed. So far only a few countries – among which are Panama, Australia and the Netherlands - expressly formulated national policies on water security, adopting a comprehensive, multisectoral and strategic approach to face water crises.

Water security challenges require a holistic, multi-stakeholder and multilevel approach, encompassing the whole water cycle, all users, several spatial scales (national, regional and local scale), as well as short and long-term temporal scales. Urban areas are growing all over the world, increasing the demand for energy, food and good quality water in sufficient quantity. Large cities, with concentrated populations and economic activities, are often incapable of meeting their water supply needs from within their urban area itself (Hoekstra et al. 2018). Thus, cities are nowadays more prone to water scarcity than ever, calling for specific water security strategies to address the risk of shortage, risk of inadequate quality for several uses, risk of excess (overflow of the water systems) and risk of undermining the resilience of natural water systems (Brears 2017).

How could local governments contribute to increasing urban water security, considering that many challenges rely on other jurisdictions and depend on financial, administrative and technical capacities? Local governments play an important role in water management and security, given their jurisdiction on four key public policy areas: sanitation, public health, environment and civil defence. Local governments are often directly responsible for providing sanitation services, including the population’s access to safe drinking water and the disposal, treatment and final destination of wastewater, the proper management of solid

waste and rainwater drainage. The environmental health departments of local government may have some responsibility on the quality of drinking water. These duties have immediate impact on the availability and quality of water resources. Local governments are also responsible for environmental protection at local level, encompassing pollution control and the protection of water sources, riparian areas, aquifer recharge and sensitive areas, as well as local risk and vulnerable areas assessment. They also have the responsibility of enforcing regional and national policy in these areas. Furthermore, they can also promote non-conventional and innovative actions under their jurisdiction on water issues, such as diversifying urban water sources (e.g. rainwater harvesting, revival of local water sources and wastewater recycling and reuse), increasing efficiency of current water systems, assessing local risk in light of local climate variability and raising awareness among the population.

Thus, local governments are the only state entity capable of assessing the state of the water supply system on account of present and future needs, integrating sector policies within their territory and interpreting local interests and demands for ensuring access to clean drinking water and water security in the development of local, regional and national water policies. This array of local responsibilities highlights local governments as key players in the construction of drinking water security, protagonists at local level and important actors for water security strategies developed by other government levels.

Such is the case in Brazil: despite the topic of water security already being on the national agenda, there is still no strategy in place to deal with the next water crisis. Brazil has no formal water security policy yet, nor any institutional definition of water security. A National Water Security Plan (PNSH, Plano Nacional de Segurança Hídrica) has been in development since 2012 but it is yet to be disclosed for public consultation. Regarding Brazilian local government’s competences, they are responsible for sanitation policy, which includes planning for services that comprise clean water supply, sewage treatment, urban cleaning and the management of solid waste, rainwater drainage, and the cleaning and inspection of sanitation networks. When planning the service, emergency actions should be defined for contingencies involving scarcity and rationing, and the adoption of parameters to ensure essential public health, including defining a minimum per capita volume for public supply. In partnership with the state’s and federal governments, local governments are responsible for public health services - including the duties to ensure the quality of water for human consumption within their territory and the control of water surveillance for human consumption. Municipalities are jointly responsible for the protection of the environment, and therefore for the stewardship of watersheds and the natural areas that affect the latter in their territory.

In addition, they are jointly responsible with the states and the federal governments for monitoring the exploitation of water resources in their territory, and for the civil defence policy. Because of these responsibilities, Brazilian local governments are also co-producers of official information on water, which should be made publicly accessible to all.

Recommendations Achieving urban water security demands the promotion of a transition process towards more sustainable, effective and democratic water management, grounded on the singularities of each city. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Many cities have already started this process towards urban water security, such as New York, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Denver, Hamburg, London, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver, that offer best practices and lessons learnt (Brears 2017).

Both water management and water security strategies are continual 22

and long-term activities that comprise several spatial and temporal scales. Water security strategies include the safe access to raw water and to drinking water; for the latter, especially from the point of view of basic human needs, local governments should play a leading role.

References

From the perspective of regional and central governments, it is essential to identify the role to be played by local governments in an effective regional and national water security strategy. From the viewpoint of the cities, local governments should carry out their responsibilities to promote the sustainable provision of safe drinking water.

Brears, R. Urban water security. Oxford, UK: Wiley, 2017

Their autonomy is conditioned by both constitutional and pragmatic circumstances: some water-related challenges can indeed be addressed by local governments in a self-sufficient manner, whereas others depend on joint action by the local authority and other spheres of government, particularly in larger cities and in metropolitan regions. These interdependencies may only be addressed through the construction of cooperative regimes for water security.

Gain, A., Giupponi, C. and Wada, Y. 2016. Measuring global water security towards

Argen Y. Hoeksstra et al. 2018. Urban water security: a review. Environmental Research Letters 13, 053002 (accessed 12 December 2018).

Cook, C. and Bakker, K. 2016. ‘Water security: critical analysis of emerging trends and definitions.’ In: Pahl-Wostl, C.; Bhaduri, A.; Gupta, J. (eds) Handbook on water security. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, p. 19-37

sustainable development goals. Environmental Research Letters, 2016, 124015.

Grey, D. and Connors, G. 2009. The Water security imperative: we must and can do more. 5th World Water Forum, Istanbul Strickert, G. et al. 2016. Unpacking viewpoints on water security: lessons from the South Saskatchewan River Basin. Water Policy 18, p. 50-72.

In Brazil, the federal organisation of the government implies that local policies are often the product of a complex interaction between municipal initiatives grounded in self-rule and municipal actions dependent on intergovernmental cooperative regimes, grounded in shared-rule. The exercise of autonomous action is embedded on the institutional federative framework, which encompasses intergovernmental relations for cooperative actions, regional and national coordination, adequate checks and balances, and on the unique historical development of each municipal jurisdiction.

The combination of these characteristics of national public policies with the continental dimensions of the Brazilian territory, and the sharp inter- and intra-regional disparities, engender poignant demand for cooperation, to enable the adaptation of national policy guidelines to local peculiarities.

UN 2010. Resolution n. 64/292, on the human right to water and sanitation.

Adopted by the General Assembly on 28 July 2010.

UN-Water 2013, Water Security and the Global Water Agenda, UN Water website, (accessed 12 December 2018).

United Nations Development Programme. 2006. 2006 Human Development Report.

Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Crisis. New York: UNDP. United Nations Environment Programme. 2009. Water Security and Ecosystems Services – the critical connection. Nairobi: UNEP. United Nations. Meetings and Coverages. Security Council. 2017. Sound Water Management, Investment in Security Vital to Sustain Adequate Supply, Access for All, Secretary-General Warns Security Council 7959th Meeting, SC 12856, June

Conclusion

2017. UN website, (accessed 12 December 2018).

In the field of water security, this demand is particularly acute: more than an alternative to overcome the scarcity of public resources, cooperation proves a sine qua non to enable actions for water security, both between adjacent local governments and among the different spheres of government, and for bridging local government, civil society and local stakeholders.

Zeitoun, M. 2013. ‘The web of sustainable water security’. In: Lankford, B.; Bakker, K.; Zeitoun, M. and CConway, D. (eds.) 2013. Water security – principles, perspectives and practices. New York: Routledge, p. 11-25.

From this perspective, three crucial factors emerge. The first pertains to challenges regarding effective metropolitan governance – already in place in many countries yet a decades-long impasse in Brazil- which still lacks an effective governance framework for the management of common services.

The second challenge is technical, financial, and institutional capacitybuilding processes, both in public organisations and in civil society and private-sector organisations, for the construction of effective and sustainable water security strategies.

The third challenge is the construction of cooperative regimes for water security: systems involve building governance arrangements that support the exercise of joint responsibility through coordination mechanisms, vertical and horizontal cooperation systems, ruling the exercise of common function, instruments for checks and balances, compensation mechanisms to balance disparate capabilities between subnational entities and, particularly, regular and reliable sources of funding. photo: Estela Neves

23

photo: EUREAU

Managing Excessive Water Flows In Cities: Nature-Based Solutions Bruno Tisserand President of the European Federation of National Associations of Water Services (EurEau)

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing society today. Not only does it impact on humanity, it requires the significant re-adaptation of our infrastructure too. But what if nature was the solution?

sealed off preventing rainwater from seeping into the earth through the use of concrete and road surfacing and so on. This results in more water having to be evacuated through combined sewers and exacerbates the pressure on water networks to deal with overflows.

The issue

How can municipalities find truly sustainable solutions? Recent initiatives in Europe, taking clues from nature, could lead the way in finding sustainable resources.

Across Europe, there are only three million kilometres of sewers to collect waste water and drain storm water. Some collecting systems have separate pipes for storm water and waste water (separate systems), whereas other collecting systems combine both storm water and waste water in the same system of pipes (combined systems).

Historically, collecting systems were constructed as urban areas developed, and typically, older cities tend to have combined systems.

Combined systems incorporate overflow devices (combined sewer overflows or CSOs) to ensure that when storm water flows are high, the excess flow can spill into a receiving water body at a designated location, ensuring that sensitive environments, public places and property are protected. Overflow events are, by their nature, intermittent local discharges, which are weather dependent. Discharges from CSOs may sometimes have a detrimental impact on the status of water bodies, like lakes or rivers, thereby temporarily affecting compliance with some EU directives such as the Bathing Waters or Habitats Directives.

Climate change in Europe will lead to more extreme weather conditions overall such as heavy downpours and long dry spells becoming more frequent (EEA 2017). Our current infrastructure might not be ready for this increased intensity and we urgently need to adapt what is in place for what is to come.

The case for Nature Based Solutions (NBS) The problem with combined sewers lies in the inherent limited volume of water each system can hold before it overflows. Since the capacities are fixed, only few resources are available: 1. Update the whole infrastructure into separate sewers, which is costly and requires changes to a city’s entire network; Increase the retention capacity of the network. Compared with 2. underground retention tanks, this is more economical, but requires part of the network to be rebuilt; 3. Use real time controls to optimise the retention capacity of the existing network or slow down the water flow before it enters the sewers so as not to overburden the infrastructure and therefore avoid overflows.

Until now, European municipalities have mainly focused on ‘grey’ solutions, using impermeable concrete to build storm water basins and large sewers. Experience shows that this approach does not overcome the problem as the retention capacity cannot be increased forever.

NBS are cost-effective and resilient options inspired by environmental principles. In urban planning, NBS focus on how to improve infiltration systems, delay the run-off, increase the storage capacity and add green areas to urban municipalities, to manage runoff volumes and peak flow. These NBSs provide sustainable, multi-purpose, resource efficient and flexible alternatives for water control by working at the source of the flow, rather than letting it accumulate. Examples of NBS are green roofs, retention ponds, infiltration trenches or rain gardens.

Growing urban sprawl has increased the amount of land that has been

According to a study by the European Commission (JRC 2016), green 24

photo: EUREAU

infrastructure is as good or, in some cases, performs better than the traditional grey infrastructure used for flood protection and water purification in urban areas, for a similar or even lower initial cost.

Green infrastructure also provides additional benefits, such as wildlife support and recreation areas for people, with significant impact on socio-economic factors and the well-being of the community.

In the following, we study four cases of NBS being implemented at local level in Europe demonstrating how municipalities can cope with excessive rainfall and heat whilst avoiding costly remedies and improving citizen engagement with NBS.

Malmø: The Venice of Sweden!

The Swedish city of Malmø boasts an impressive six-kilometre network of canals and water channels as well as ten retention ponds. The NBS collect rain water in natural ditches and reservoirs before channelling it into a conventional sewer system. Flooding in Malmø was also solved through the use of green roofs. Now, on average, 90 per cent of the storm water (ECAP 2014) goes into the open storm urban water system.

As a result, the total annual runoff volume is reduced by 20 per cent due to evaporation. Malmø illustrates how excess of rain water can easily be absorbed by a more efficient storm management system using NBS.

Cool Thessaloniki Southern European countries face different challenges when it comes to water management, namely the increased heat in urban areas.

Thessaloniki developed a model for sustainable urban design and effectively redeveloped its open spaces with green infrastructure (Integrated Green Cities 2014). The improvement focused on infiltration capacity in the downtown Chrimatistiriou square, to make it an urban bioclimatic tool (Greece Is 2016) through planting trees for shade and installing fountains for recreation and cooler air. Another benefit from NBS is reduced runoff during rain events and cooler temperatures during the summer, something that any municipality located in a hot climate could benefit from.

Copen-green-en The case of Copenhagen offers some cost effective NBS. In 2013, new climate legislation in Denmark (Danish Government 2013) focused, amongst other goals, on the development of sustainable surface solutions. Surface solutions transform an urban area with an impermeable surface into an urban water body with water flows and functions which can be integrated into the wider catchment such as the sewers. An evaluation in May 2017 (Haase et al. 2017) of the projects, brought under this regulation, showed that the cost of these green solutions is one quarter of the cost of implementing one of the traditional underground pipe solutions. NBS in Copenhagen include the installation of green roads and the greening of local squares to increase retention of CO2 and the creation of a downtown rain garden and cloudburst storage outside of the city to absorb excess water (ECAP 2016). Overall, these green solutions present a cheaper alternative to grey infrastructures and many could be replicated elsewhere.

Swales in Wales Between 2015 and 2020, the Welsh programme RainScape (Welsh Water 2018) aims to remove the equivalent of 25.000 rooftops-worth of runoff water. Acknowledging that most sewers have to cope with both surface water and urban waste water, the risk of sewer-flooding and pollution is inherent in the design of grey water infrastructure. Included in the Water2050 strategic responses to improve the resilience of local communities, RainScape invested GBP80 million in NBS, knowing that building additional storage tanks and pipes would have been more expensive and not as sustainable. Through the creation of porous paving, swales and grass channels, the project helped to reduce pollution as well as operational pressure in water management and improve the consumer’s trust. The programme supported communities in becoming more resilient to climate change. Citizens, including children, were engaged directly in the implementation of the project, (Welsh Water 2013). This different approach to urban planning also attracted media interest. Far more than just urban policy, we see in the above examples how NBS can also help to boost the engagement of the 25

communities in policy making and in shaping their urban environment.

Assessment. Prod-ID: IND-91-en Also known as: CLIM 002. January 2017. EEA website (accessed 12 December 2018).

How to make NBS work Greece is 2016. Remodeling Thessaloniki: Chrimatistiriou Square Goes Green.

From these examples, we can infer three main conclusions on how to integrate NBS into urban planning: on policy, public involvement and investment.

Greece Is website (accessed 12 December 2018).

Haase, D., Kabisch, S., Haase, A., Andersson, E., Banzhaf, E., Baró, F., Wolff, M. 2017 ‘Greening cities – To be socially inclusive? About the alleged paradox of

Changes in weather patterns are too serious to be left unaddressed.

Political will at local level has to drive initiatives, not extreme events and flooded infrastructures. As regards the European Union, European directives, such as the Water Framework Directive, Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, can be another source of impetus especially regarding the ongoing evaluations and potential future revisions.

This asks for clear and focused governance structures, for example combining river basin management and urban planning in common initiatives.

society and ecology in cities’. Applied spatial analysis and policy, 64, 41-48

Integration and a long-term vision for urban planning are essential when it comes to water management. Public awareness and engagement are key as local communities can be part of the process, as actors and users of the network. Moreover, NBS are tangible and visible to the public, literally greening the urban space. Involving citizens and including media coverage can help to secure the necessary investments.

The Danish Government 2013. Climate Policy Plan: towards a low carbon society.

Integrated Green Cities 2014. Programme: 2007 - 2013 Greece - Bulgaria (EL-BG).

Keep.eu website (accessed 12 December 2018).

Joint Research Centre 2016. Integrated valuation of a nature-based solution for water pollution control. Highlighting hidden benefits. Ecosystem Services, Volume 22, Part B, December 2016, Pages 392-401, ScienceDirect website European Commission, (accessed 12 December 2018).

online PDF (accessed 12 December 2018).

Welsh Water 2013. Stebonheath Primary School, Llanelli Case study. Susdrain website (accessed 12 December 2018).

Welsh Water 2018. RainScape. RainScape website (accessed 12 December 2018).

An advantage of NBS over alternatives lies in its cost. Even if investment is needed, it is on average similar to or lower than what would be required for building huge retention tanks or full new systems.

Experience shows that maintenance is a key aspect that is sometimes neglected. The point of maintenance is to keep the full capacity of the infrastructures intact between rainfall events. This means that even if NBS are more cost-effective than grey infrastructures, they have to be foreseen in long-term urban policies, and not implemented as a simple, quick fix.

Conclusion To face the changes of climate and environmental conditions, urban managers at all levels should seriously consider NBS solutions as part of the overall approach. Experiences in Europe show that, when integrated in urban planning, NBS contribute to reducing the peak flow and the runoff volume of rain water. They offer a cost-effective alternative to the implementation of single sewers and mitigate effectively the impacts of climate change.

Furthermore, NBS redefine the place of water networks in local communities. NBS require local level acceptance and long-term urban planning with public responsibility. Examples demonstrate the need for all citizens to participate and benefit from making a positive and lasting mark on the environment, all in the name of sustainable water management.

References ECAP (European Climate Adaptation Platform, Climate-ADAPT) 2014. Urban storm water management in Augustenborg, Malmö’ European Climate Adaptation Platform website (accessed 12 December 2018).

ECAP (European Climate Adaptation Platform, Climate-ADAPT) 2016. The economics of managing heavy rains and stormwater in Copenhagen – The Cloudburst Management Plan. European Climate Adaptation Platform website (accessed 12 December 2018). photo: RIO+ Centre

EEA 2017. European Environment Agency – Mean precipitation; Indicator 26

photo: ttps://pxhere.com/en/photo/1417284

Charging For The Use of Bulk Water In Rio De Janeiro: Analysing A Sustainable Water Management System Adriana de Lima Bocaiuva Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Faced with the worsening scarcity and degradation of water resources, the question of the quality and quantity of fresh water available for human supply and other uses occupies an increasingly wide space in the arena of environmental policy. This has caused the uprising recognition of the universal right to water.

Ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water for all is at the core of the human right to water. This has been a focus of international environmental debates since the first global water conference, in 1977, when UN Mar del Plata Conference declared that all peoples have the right to access drinking water. In the following decades, several global policies and conferences have addressed this theme, leading to the official recognition of the human right to water and sanitation stated by the UN Resolution 64/292 adopted on 28th July 2010.

The UN-Water Water Quality Policy Brief (2011) concludes that protecting water quality will guarantee a future, where clean and protected watercourses will reduce the operation costs for industries, farms and cities, enabling them to operate more economically and focus on meeting other basic human needs.

Following this, in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted among the Sustainable Development Goals the aims to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all by 2030, integrated water resources management at all levels by 2030, and to protect and restore water-related ecosystems by 2020 (SDG6). To achieve this, the UN Development Programme recommends the implementation of a participatory Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and states that effective water governance is the key to water security based on protection, allocation and sharing of water resources at basin and sub-basin levels where politics, bureaucracy and communities deal with problems at local and basin scale.

Box 1: Water Security Water security is the “capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of and acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.” (UN Water 2013) Inspired by the international water resources management evolution, Brazilian Federal Water Law (Law 9.433/97) inaugurated the National Water Resources Policy (NWRP), introducing participatory management tools by water basin, such as water resources plans, granting and charging for the use of bulk water.

The NWRP is based on the principles and foundations that water is not only a fundamental element but is also a limited natural resource and a public domain endowed with economic value. As such, the resource, according to NWRP, should have its multiple use guaranteed (with the prioritization of human and animal consumption) through decentralised management as well as through the participation of public agents, users and communities (Neves; Whateley and Bocaiuva 2016).

At the subnational level, Brazilian states are free to implement statelevel water resource management plans, in accordance with their respective state water policies. In this sense, the State of Rio de Janeiro established the State Water Resources Policy (SWPR), contemplating the same instruments provided by the NWRP and reassuring that water is an essential element for life. Subsequently, the charge for the use of water under state control is regulated by the state Law 4.247/2003.

The state environmental agency implements the process of granting and charging for bulk water use in all the watersheds of Rio de Janeiro, uniformly setting the same method for the entire state. This paper aims to describe this process and highlight the main obstacles of the implementation of this mechanism by Rio de Janeiro state.

27

Objectives and principles of the Brazilian charge system for bulk water use Based on the principles and foundations of the NWRP, the charging for the use of water resources - in addition to recognising water as an economic good and giving the user an indication of its real value should encourage rationing water use and guarantee resources for the financing of the programs and interventions contemplated in the water resources plans.

In this sense, the levy on the use of bulk water is not a tax but a tool for achieving the NWRP’s objectives, based on the principles of the userpayer -PUP and polluter-payer-PPP. As Prieur (1996) describes, the first outline of the PPP – inspired by the economic theory that social costs must be internalised, that is, integrated into the costs of production - was inaugurated in the Recommendation of the Council of the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) of 1972 on Principles Concerning the International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies. It reiterates the recommendation for the implementation of the PPP in other documents such as the Council Recommendation on the Use of Economic Instruments in Environmental from1991 and in the Principle 16 of the Rio Declaration from 1992.

Inspired by the PPP and PUP, Brazilian law states that the value of the levy on the use of water should take into consideration: the volume of water withdrawn and, in the case of releases of sewage and other liquid or gaseous, the physic-chemical, biological and toxicity characteristics of the release.

Following the OECD water management principles, amounts collected should be applied primarily in the hydrographic basin in which they were generated, and should finance studies, programs, and projects that positively change the quality and quantity of the flow of a body of water. Faithful to the foundations of decentralised management, the NWRP assures the basin committees their participation in the establishment of the mechanisms of collection of the levy for the use of water resources, through suggestions of values, coefficients and the establishment of hypotheses of uses that are considered insignificant.

Charge = Qcap x [K0 + K1 + (1-K1) x (1-K2K3)] x PPU • Qcap corresponds to the volume of water collected during a month (m3/ month); • K0 expresses the unit price multiplier for capture (less than 1.0); • K1 expresses the consumption coefficient for the user activity in question, i.e. the ratio between the volume consumed and the volume captured by the user or the index corresponding to the part of the volume captured that does not return to the source; • K2 expresses the percentage of the volume of treated effluents in relation to the total volume of effluents produced or the coverage index of treatment of domestic or industrial effluents, that is, the ratio between the treated effluent flow and the gross effluent flow; • K3 expresses the efficiency level of reduction of OBD (Oxygen Biochemical Demand) at the Effluent Treatment Station; • UPP is the Unitary Public Price (BRL/m3).

Therefore, the methodology implemented uniformly in all the basins of the state, since the publication of Law 4.247/2003, remains unchanged with the following UPP and coefficients for capture, consumption and water disposal: • Ko = 0,4 (coefficient for captured volume); • K1 = Consumed Q / captured Q (coefficient for volume consumed, informed by the user); • K2 = Q release treated / Q Untreated release (coefficient of the percentage traded and relation to the volume of effluents produced); • K3 = 1- (treated effluent / raw effluent) (OBD reduction efficiency level); • Unitary Public Price (PPU) = BRL0.02 per cubic metre;

Pricing bulk water use has been implemented for more than four decades in France and inspired the Brazilian NWRP. The French charging system appears to be effective in promoting sustainability and the efficient operation of the infrastructure (Barth et al. 1987). The German system opts for sharing investment and maintenance costs of common infrastructure at the river basin scale, dating back to the 19th century. More recently, some countries, like the USA and Australia, implemented a market-based strategy, through pricing water permits and allowing their trade.

Implantation of the State of Rio de Janeiro’s charging system for the use of water In 2003, the state of Rio de Janeiro centralised the collection mechanism for the water levy, implementing the same methodology for all the state’s river basins, on a provisional basis. The methodology and the values of the levy were validated on the condition of effectively implementing the state committees and elaboratiing the respective River Basin Plans. However, after more then a decade of charging for the use of water, and despite the establishment of basin committees in all hydrographic regions of the state, there has been practically no change in the methodology nor readjustments of the originally stipulated Unit Public Price (UPP), used as the basis for the calculation formula adopted by the system, set up as followed: Total Monthly

• the third part of the formula, referring to the reduction of ODB, represents the relationship between the treated effluent flow and the gross effluent flow (K2), and K3 expresses the efficiency level of reduction of ODB (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) in the Effluent Treatment Station.

The State Water Resources Plan (SWRP) foresees a demand for investments of BRL1 billion per year by 2030, distributed among the hydrographic regions of the state. The amount collected since the beginning of the implementation of the collection system (2004 - 2015) totals just over BRL202 million. And from this amount, only BRL65 million were actually disbursed by the committees to carry out sanitation works (BRL 31 million) for environmental recovery (BRL8 million) and planning and management (BRL26 million).

Considering the volume of resources collected from the use of water per basin to date, and the minimum amount required to achieve the projects foreseen in the SWRP up to 2030 (BRL1 billion / year), the levy collection mechanism for the use of bulk water does not achieve its goals. The collection of resources should guarantee the implementation of the management system in all basins, endowing the committees with secretariats and basin plans. These expectations have been frustrated by the system’s ineptitude in overcoming obstacles to 28

the consolidation of the goals of the National Plan for Water Resources (PNRH in Portuguese abbreviation). Nor does the basic value of the methodology adopted, the Unit Price, of only two cents per cubic metre of water consumed, induce rationing and / or perception of the real value of water. Thus, the method does not strengthen the prevention of pollution nor does it provide appropriate market incentives for the efficient use and allocation of water, while protecting the interests of the poor and those without access to markets.

IGP-M FGV. Portalbrasil website. (accessed 20 December 2018)

The controversial centralised process of implementing the collection for water use in the state of Rio de Janeiro has generated a series of legal disputes for usurping competences of the basin committees, dissonant to the NWRP’s foundations. On the other hand, the process was successful in implementing the collection in the totality of the watersheds of the state.

December 2018)

Naves, Estela Maria; S. C. Whateley, Marussia; Bocaiuva, Adriana 2016. Quem cuida da água? Governança da água doce: a moldura jurídico-institucional nacional, Aliança pela água website (accessed 20 December 2018) Prieur, Michael 1996. Droit de L’environnment. 3rd ed. Paris, Dalloz.

UN-WATER 2013. ‘What is water security?” UN WATER website, (accessed 20

Fifth World Water Forum. 2009 Process: Istanbul Ministerial Statement. Fifth World Water Forum, Istanbul, Turkey.

It is important to register the inertia in the process of revision of this methodology by the basin committees, after more than 10 years of the instrument’s implementation in the state. Even a monetary restatement was proposed to guarantee the replacement of inflationary losses as a measure of the maintenance of the original value stipulated. The accumulated inflation correction index for the period of 2004-2015 (IGP-M FGV) would be 200 per cent. This methodology needs to be revised in order to incorporate parameters that induce a more rational use of water, the preservation of springs and the incorporation of new users to the system.

Conclusion After nearly two decades of the inauguration of the new water resources management policy in Rio de Janeiro, the collection of resources by charging a levy for bulk water use has not yet been able to reach basin plan goals and the consequent guarantee of the Human Right to water.

Participatory and decentralised water management requires a change of mentality, behaviours and attitudes, which demands a long process of adaptation. In this sense, the implementation of the Rio de Janeiro Water Policy reveals the long path that collegial processes face. The main challenges are to overcome the inertia in promoting institutional changes and to ensure greater agility and flexibility in the review and adjustments of the collection methodology as well as in the establishment or collection of the values collected in the basin.

The principles and foundations that underpin the creation of this mechanism must guide its application to induce the rational use of water and guarantee the necessary resources to achieve SDG6 on the universal and equitable access to safe and affordable water for all by 2030, integrated water resources management at all levels by 2030, and to protect and restore water-related ecosystems by 2020.

To discuss river basin committees in Brazil is to introduce the process of implementing a federative management model that must include the society in its regional representations, promoting the social control of the allocation of resources and processes. Throughout this movement, a path is traced in the construction of social capital for the establishment of water governance for a future, where clean and protected watercourses will guarantee the fundamental human right to water and other basic needs.

References Barth, F. T., C. T. Pompeu, H. D. Fill, C.E.M. Tucci, and others 1987. Modelos para Gerenciamento de Recursos Hídricos. São Paulo, Nobel/ABRH.

photo: Adriana Bocaiuva

29

photo: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1104996

Drainage Infrastructure in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area, Mexico: The Case Of The Pluviales Project Dr. Ismael Aguilar – Barajas Department of Economics and Water Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

The Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA), with a population of over 4.5 million people, is a major Mexican metropolis located in the north east of Mexico (Figure 1). The proper and efficient functioning of its drainage infrastructure is key for the population, the urban environment, as well as the local and national economy. The MMA is situated within a semiarid region, which is also prone to hurricanes and tropical storms. Even moderate rains exhibit the vulnerability of the city to flooding and its ability to cause serious damage urban mobility, physical assets, and the loss of human lives. These rains, along with the pattern of formal and informal urbanisation over high areas, generate flash floods. In 1988, the presence of Hurricane Gilbert cost the lives of more than 200 people and severe damages to the infrastructure of the metropolis.

The Santa Catarina River, which crosses the city from west to east, overflowed its banks (Figure 2).

The social concern over these losses, influenced the undertaking of two major infrastructure projects. One of them was the construction of a dam in the upper part of the City, to catch, store and manage these flash floods and downpours. This project is known as the Rompepicos Dam. The second project was the construction of a large system of main and secondary drain collectors, The Pluviales, which is the focus of this paper.

The Pluviales project The Pluviales Project was designed in the context of a highly sensitive socio-political environment and required interrelated legal and financial arrangements. At the end of the 1990s, deficient urban pluvial drainage forced the state government to draft a programme that would address this issue. In the light of the human lives lost and the adverse impacts in terms of mobility, the pressure from the media generated urgency to act (El Norte 2002). Highly specialised studies – which involved aspects of soil mechanics, runoff patterns at the micro basin level, and the location of human settlements in risky areas - were carried out leading to the creation of the Integral System for the Management of Pluvial Waters (SIMAP in Spanish) (Canales Clariond 2011).

The responsibility for storm runoff management rested with the state government Secretariat of Urban Development and Public Works (SDUOP in Spanish) and the metropolitan municipalities, although none of these entities had the technical nor financial resources to do much about this issue. However, on 16 August 2000, the state congress changed the state water and sewerage authority, Servicios de Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey - SADM’s statutes in order to allow it to embark on an ambitious storm drainage infrastructure project using its own revenues to finance this enterprise (Aguilar Barajas; Sisto and Ramírez 2015).

In May 2001, the state government formally presented the Integral System for the Management of Pluvial Waters - SIMAP. In 2002, SIMAP had identified 420 risk points (El Norte 2002). SDUOP coordinated initiatives with other state and municipal entities, as well as with federal government agencies – like the National Water Commission, the Secretariat of Urban Development, and the Secretariat of Social Development. The SIMAP experience showed the importance of developing a public policy in a coordinated and integrative approach.

A major premise of SIMAP´s work centred upon some environmentallyfriendly approaches to urban drainage management, like reforestation in the upper parts and within the MMA. These reforestation works were done in a natural national protected area, with the additional support of the federal and state environment agencies, giving a good example of transversal work across different institutions.

Between 2002 and 2009, three billion pesos were destined to that end, 80 per cent from SADM’s own treasury and the rest coming from the federal government. About 200 kilometres of main and secondary drain collectors were laid, reducing the risk of flooding, in the city’s most exposed locations, by 93 per cent. It is estimated that The Pluviales benefited around 1.2 million inhabitants (Flores Longoria and Maldonado 2009).

30

less difficulties to provide services and facilitate trade, and count on reliable water and finally on health and well-being, by saving human lives and reducing health hazards.

Policy Recommendations There is the urgent need to sustain and improve the drainage infrastructure of the city and to handle pluvial waters in a better way.

This need is also felt in almost every rainy season. For instance, the early rains of August and September 2018, and the likely impact of future hurricanes, sent the warning that the city needs to rehabilitate its pluvial drainage infrastructure, and expand the work that was done in connection with the Pluviales project.

Figure 1: Location of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area in north eastern Mexico.

Source: Aguilar Barajas, Sisto and Ramírez (2015)

After almost 18 years of this programme, it is obvious that maintenance and expansion of this infrastructure are needed. Its financing will require innovative approaches, combining governmental funding from the federal to the municipal level along with private and social participation. Five years ago, it was estimated the metropolis was tenyears of progress behind the level of infrastructure that it required to handle pluvial waters. Experts consulted then estimated the financial needs amounted to MXN8300 million.1 In September 2018, the former director of SIMAP considered the risk of 200 to 300 new flooding points (Villasáez 2018).

The Pluviales project and Sustainable Development Goals The Pluviales project maintains strong interconnections between social, economic and environmental dimensions. As already mentioned, The Pluviales was the result of pressing social concern. The significance of this metropolis to Mexico, means that this project had a profound national economic rationale. In order to undertake The Pluviales, complex institutional and financial arrangements had to be made.

This strategic infrastructure also helped to prevent and reduce an environmental and public health crisis. Dealing with a strong climate variability in the region – characterised by long droughts and the presence of heavy rains and hurricanes – has always been a challenge for the MMA.

There is thus the urgency for more comprehensive urban planning, in which greater policy co-ordination is a must. Urbanisation has extended over areas that in the past enabled the infiltration of rainwater. Stricter regulation in this regard needs to be enacted. Finally, as in other cities of Mexico and Latin America, it must be recognised that pluvial water management is also related to solid waste management and the improvement of them could benefit both.

Concluding Remarks

More specifically, the Pluviales project exhibits clear links with several of the sustainable development goals (SDG). This case study shows the benefits of investing in stormwater management to better handle urban pluvial flooding. If this is done properly, then stormwater provides enormous social, economic and environmental benefits to the metropolis, as was recognised when SIMAP was established. Water supply is a specific example. As a matter of fact, hurricanes have been generous providers of water to the metropolis. The project has also contributed to making the MMA a more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable area.

Moreover, there has been a beneficial reduction in the number of deaths and the economic losses to both people and economic activities.

The project has contributed to the protection of critical infrastructure and poor people in risky situations. Concerning the adoption and implementation of climate change adaptation, The Pluviales are called to play an even greater role for the MMA, in the light of the real threat of more intense flooding.

The experience with this project also demonstrates that improving the drainage infrastructure/preparation for stormwater could bring about major additional benefits for other SDGs. For example, reducing the stormwater / seasonal flooding will positively impact on education such as school attendance, due to the youth having less trouble to get to school and schools not being flooded. Its impact on work and economic growth in the way that people can get to work easier, have

photo: The Santa Catarina River during Hurricane Gilbert, September 17 1988 source: Courtesy from El Norte

A new governance is required to manage the pluvial waters of the MMA. This new institutional arrangement must take into account the strategic role of this metropolis in the Mexican economy. This implies that stronger support is needed from the federal government to meet the financial requirements to improve the urban drainage of pluvial waters. This new governance needs to also take into account the climate and hydrological contexts. A basin framework is useful in the design of more comprehensive strategies. It seems advisable to consider the establishment of a new SIMAP, with sufficient decision-making power to design and implement these strategies.

At last, greater coordination at the metropolitan level will be required.

It is essential, however, to consider the restrictive framework under

1. Newspaper El Horizonte, 17 October 2013. With the then rate of exchange, this amounts to USD644 millions 31

which most municipalities operate: only three years in office with limited financial resources. This situation makes them easy targets of speculative capital to authorise urban projects, which are not compatible with sound principles for the handling of pluvial waters.

In a more integrated approach, it would require the design of a riskbased management approach rather than reactive policies. It is a matter of economic, social and environmental responsibility. At the end of the day, a better urban drainage system will contribute to a more sustainable metropolis.

References Aguilar-Barajas, I., Sisto, N.P., and Ramírez-Orozco, A.I. 2015. Agua para Monterrey.Logros, retos y oportunidades para Nuevo León y México (Water for Monterrey.Achievements, challenges and opportunities), Monterrey, N.L., APP for Tecnológico de Monterrey, Centro del Agua para América Latina y el Caribe, Servicios de Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey.

Canales Clariond, F. 2011. Sí se puede. crónica de un cambio (It can be done.

Chronicle of a change), Grijalbo, México City.

El Norte (2002) whose first pages provided an acute account of the damages. See, for example, the article of 21 July, 2002, p 6A. Flores Longoria, M, and Maldonado, E. 2009. Nuevo León. La Odisea del Agua (Nuevo Leon. The Odissey of Water), Monterrey, N.L. Gobierno del Estado and SADM OECD 2013. OECD Reviews of Risk Management Policies: Mexico 2013: Review of the Mexican National Civil Protection System, Paris, OECD Publishing http://dx.doi. org/10.1787/9789264192294-en (accessed 18 December 2018) Villasáez, J. 2018. “Tras ´Gilberto´ hay avances y retrocesos” El Norte Website (payed access 18 December 2018)

32

rio.mais@undp.org - www.riopluscentre.org © 2018 World Centre for Sustainable Development