Sustaining Urban Water and Sanitation in Beira, Mozambique: From Policy to Practice Through Local Perspectives

Access to safe water and sanitation remains a pressing challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rapid urbanisation, fragile governance, and increasing climate hazards continue to undermine the sustainability of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) services. This study examines whether Mozambique’s normative and institutional framework effectively supports sustainable urban WASH service delivery in Beira, the country’s second-largest city. Combining a critical policy review with six semi-structured interviews involving institutional actors and community leaders, the research employs a qualitative, phenomenological design to explore the interaction between national frameworks and local practices. Findings reveal five interrelated dimensions shaping sustainability: governance coordination, infrastructure robustness and maintenance, community participation, climate resilience, and financial viability. Although post-disaster investments and recent policy reforms have led to improvements, significant challenges persist. These include overlapping institutional mandates, underdeveloped preventive maintenance systems, limited recognition and support for community-led initiatives, fragmented climate adaptation efforts, and strong dependence on external funding. The study also reveals how historical legacies, particularly colonial-era governance structures, continue to shape water and sanitation delivery. By integrating policy analysis with local perspectives, the paper contributes to debates on WASH sustainability in African cities, particularly in climate-vulnerable secondary urban centres. It highlights the need for systemic reforms that clarify institutional roles, institutionalise maintenance practices, formalise community engagement, embed nature-based adaptation strategies, and strengthen financial transparency. These changes are essential if Beira, and similar cities across sub-Saharan Africa, are to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 under mounting climate pressure.