Water partnerships: pathways for sustainable safe drinking water supply

Water Partnerships empower stakeholders to support locally-led decision making around the motivation, form, and sustainable management of a safe water system. While partnerships can support the long-term success of water systems, the forms of such partnerships are not yet well understood. This study learned about creating Water Partnerships from hundreds of water leaders on four continents: (1) who needs to be involved, (2) what are the roles of various partners, and (3) what tools ensure that everyone is confident and able to participate? Stakeholders and their roles are identified and recommendations are shared for each of eight steps in a participatory water process from ignition through participatory design, construction, and operations. Essential tasks involved aligning project goals, establishing roles and responsibilities, selecting a locally-appropriate water system design, developing a water action plan including financial management, operations and maintenance, accountability, and training for water leaders. These findings are critically assessed in the context of participatory frameworks including the Ladder of Citizen Participation. The appropriate level of citizen participation varied throughout the process: values-based decisions were made by community members, whereas informed decisions of science, health or operational nature were mostly taken after consultation with outside experts. Participants reported that participatory processes expanded their impacts by “multiplying ourselves into other community structures”. Effective partnerships require trust, which may be built through transparency, revealing one’s interests, and the ability to listen. The Water Partnerships approach is underlined by the quote: “ People understand their water challenges, and they know their water solutions too ,” which highlights the need to listen, to empower, and to integrate local knowledge.