CO-Water · From Conflict to Co-production: A Grassroots-Led Model of Polycentric Water Governance in the Postcolonial South

From Conflict to Co-production: A Grassroots-Led Model of Polycentric Water Governance in the Postcolonial South

In most postcolonial countries, only few institutional arrangements have been established to ensure universal access to essential water infrastructures and services. As a result, these countries have experienced significant fragmentation in access to water services. Meanwhile, the conventional approach to water infrastructure systems, which promotes centralized networks with homogenous technology, have proven inadequate in addressing the needs of large and mega-cities with irregular urban fabrics. Our research programme CO-Water is particularly concerned about the growing disparities in household real income, community wellbeing, and socio-environmental resilience, largely driven by fragmented access to water. At the same time, CO-Water acknowledges the need to diversify infrastructure provision systems while ensuring just and equitable access to water. As conflicts over water resources and water territories continue to rise in an era of uneven urbanization, the worsening impacts of climate change further heighten the urgency of these issues. These are the central challenges of contemporary water governance, and CO-Water is committed to addressing them. CO-Water, explores potential pathways for turning water conflicts in the post-colonial South into the co-production of water, sanitation, and related infrastructures and services (hereafter 'water co-production'). A more flexible approach to water governance—one that better engages communities—would result in more democratic and effective service systems, accommodating the significant variation in socio-hydrology, aspirations, resources, and capacities. Water co-production is a specific form of collective action, where diverse arrangements of joint efforts are made to allocate resources for the provision of public or common goods and services. CO-Water aims to conceptualize a co-productive governance model, in which social movements' initiatives are integrated into processes that resolve conflicts and drive the structural transformation of public water infrastructures and services.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз