Institut français de recherche sur le Japon à la Maison franco-japonaise (Umifre 19, MEAE-CNRS)

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Reaching SDG6: at what Cost?
A critique of decentralized water initiatives in Asian cities
Tradeoffs between economic, technical efficiency and ecological concerns
Catherine Baron
LEREPS/Political Science Institute, Toulouse, France

Many cities and rural areas in the Global South are often considered as having incomplete infrastructural grids, and centralized piped water systems are not considered as the norm anymore to secure access to safe water. To tackle the limits of centralized piped water systems, off-grid technical devices and other solutions are promoted in the Global South, especially in Asian urban contexts. International institutions including the World Bank and the JMP consider them as an alternative, viable solutions to achieve SDG6 (Cohen and Ray, 2018; Misra and Kingdom, 2019).
New actors and configurations are emerging, from street vendors to water ATMs; from multinational companies selling single-use bottles to "social enterprises"; NGOs selling reusable water gallon containers through community-owned kiosks. Even public entities now sell their own bottled water. New forms of collective action are emerging leading to a "fragmented" governance of water services and the emergence of hybrid governance rules.
The efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility of these off-grid systems are often analyzed, however these analyses rarely take into consideration the ecological perspective. Are these new decentralized governance modes complementary to the centralized vision of water service governance or do they reflect the emergence of a new regime (considering the institutional, organizational, ecological aspects)? How do these socio-technical designs and decentralized governance modes question the articulation between water services issues and water resources management?

Catherine Baron is a full professor at the Political Science Institute of Toulouse, France. She is the director of the Master Program "International cooperation and Development". Her research interests concern Development Studies and Water governance, focusing on two main issues: (1) Urban Water Governance and off grid infrastructures in precarious neighborhoods in the Global South; (2) The analysis of travelling models at the international level as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) models and the gap between formal rules and practices. She refers to institutional approaches (Commons/Commoning) and political ecology as conceptual frameworks. Her work discusses coproduction to analyze participatory water governance in relation with public policies. She also analyzes the interactions between water resource governance and water services (potable water) governance in the context of climate change.

Decentralized Water Treatment and Supply: Technology Options and Beyond
Kumiko Oguma
Department of Urban Engineering, The University of Tokyo

The world is now facing challenges to supply safe, stable and affordable water to all in a sustainable manner. Still, it is apparently impossible to achieve 100% coverage of centralized public water supply systems all over the world by the target year of SDGs 2030. This is how small-scale decentralized water treatment and supplies, such as community-based and household water treatment systems including point-of-entry (POE) and point-of-use (POU) devices, would play key roles in the future. This talk will introduce some water treatment technology options designed for decentralized systems in engineering viewpoints, aiming to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion beyond technical aspects for our sustainable future.

Dr. Kumiko Oguma, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering, The University of Tokyo. She is the specialist on water treatment technologies with particular focus on UV disinfection, and have been working on the UV technology applications in community-based water supplies and household water treatment systems in Japan and several developing countries in Southeast Asia.

Water Data, Water Governance and Accountability on the Mekong River
Carl Middleton
Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

The low flows on the Mekong River during 2019-2021 focused attention on to intergovernmental water data sharing, gaps within it, and the role of multiple expert studies in explaining the hydrological conditions and its impact on water quality, ecology, and riparian communities. There remain unresolved questions regarding the extent to which recently completed large hydropower dams have influenced the low flows, alongside the drought conditions at the time. In principle, water data underpins transboundary water governance and water diplomacy, including through providing evidence and trust building. However, water data and its analysis has also become politicized in the Mekong basin. This presentation will critically discuss whether existing practices of sharing and publicizing water data have improved public participation and accountability of decision-makers to riparian communities and civil society. It will argue that a diversity of water knowledge beyond scientific water data is required, including situated community knowledge, and civil society and academic research. While existing government and intergovernmental platforms could improve channels to receive information from communities, civil society, and others to strengthen transboundary water governance, I also suggest that there may be limits to this form of accountability mechanism because fundamental questions on the multiple meanings (or ontologies) of water are not seriously acknowledged at present.

Dr. Carl Middleton is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Director on the Graduate Studies in International Development Studies (MAIDS-GRID) Program, and Director of the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) in the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Dr. Middleton's research interests orientate around the politics and policy of the environment in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on nature-society relations, the political ecology of water and energy, human mobility, and environmental justice. He has helped establish and now heads the Chulalongkorn University UNESCO Chair on Resource Governance and Futures Literacy, one focus of which is the future of rivers in Southeast Asia.

Closing the Loop of Urban Water System: Advocating for Resilience 
Anindya Nastiti 
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung 

Urban water scarcity is projected to continue to increase due to the dual pressures of rapid population growth and deteriorating available freshwater resources, exacerbated by climate change. By 2050, nearly half of the world's major cities will be in water-scarce areas. By 2050, including Jakarta. Until 2018, access to piped drinking water had only reached 20.14% of all households in Indonesia, and the coverage of centralised wastewater systems is less than <5%. Surface water is highly polluted and susceptible to climate change-induced flowrate variability. Relying on groundwater, the dominant mode of provision in Jakarta, is no longer sustainable as it is often unsafe and leads to an alarming environmental crisis. The linear and centralised approach to urban water systems is no longer viable in facing the upcoming SDG safely managed water target and climate crisis. Diversifying water sources through the promotion of reclaimed water is considered a potential key adaptation strategy for cities. Reclaimed water has been applied successfully in various parts of the world, such as Singapore, with its NEWater program. Technopolitical factors have been identified for the application of reclaimed water in Singapore: strong support from the government, credible reference projects, technology demonstrations in the local environment, rigorous assessment of water safety, endorsement by a panel of experts, and practical public and customer engagement. The hybridisation of reclaimed water systems in urban Jakarta will be discussed from the perspectives of PESTLE (political, economic, social, technology, law, and environment). 

Anindrya Nastiti is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung. She pledges herself to interdisciplinary research. In collaborations with social scientists, she has been working on the field of water security challenges, water governance and stewardship, human rights to water and sanitation, and inclusive WASH. Her recent work is on socio-technical off-grid water solutions in urban areas, diversification of water sources towards urban water resilience, inclusive sanitation for marginalised groups, and emerging pollutants. Together with her peers, she won the PNAS' Cozzarelli Prize 2022. 

Discussant: Amalinda Savirani

Amalinda Savirani is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Government, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. She has published many books and academic articles on civil society movements in Indonesia.

Moderator: Adrienne Sala (FIRJ-MFJ)
Organization: FRIJ-MFJ