Promoting water-sustainability: A participatory co-design approach for addressing water-supply challenges in urban Kerala, India

This study addresses water supply challenges in rapidly growing urban centres of India through a participatory, co-design approach. Focusing on two marginalised wards in Kochi, Kerala, India, the study uses Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques and stakeholder co-design workshops to explore solution suggestions for sustainable urban water supply. The study revealed critical issues such as water shortages, unequal distribution, and water quality concerns. Through active engagement with residents and local water supply service institutions, this study collaboratively designed and proposed sustainable and context-specific solution suggestions, such as implementing Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for real-time monitoring of water systems and a multilingual digital social platform to facilitate communication between water supply services and residents. This approach not only addresses immediate water supply issues but also promotes long-term stakeholder engagement and community empowerment. While some aspects of the findings are context-specific, such as the particular challenges identified and the solutions suggested, the core methodology of combining PRA and co-design approaches is generalisable to other contexts. The research findings provided insights that can be applied across different urban infrastructure issues in different contexts to understand local challenges, engage stakeholders, integrate technology with existing infrastructure and local knowledge, create user-friendly interfaces, and iteratively refine solutions in a co-design process. The study's innovative methodology demonstrates how participatory approaches can lead to more effective, sustainable, and locally adapted solutions in urban water supply, offering valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners in low- and middle-income countries facing similar challenges. • Urban water management in densely populated urban city in India. • Utilizing Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to assess the community's specific requirements. • Employing a co-design approach for sustainable solutions with stakeholder engagement. • Active community and local water institution engagement for collaboratively designing context-specific solution suggestions.