Reducing Groundwater Contamination from On-Site Sanitation in Peri-Urban Sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing Transition Management Attributes towards Implementation of Water Safety Plans
by
Felix R. B. Twinomucunguzi 1,*
, Philip M. Nyenje 1, Robinah N. Kulabako 1, Swaib Semiyaga 1, Jan Willem Foppen 2 and Frank Kansiime 3
Felix R. B. Twinomucunguzi 1,*, Philip M. Nyenje 1, Robinah N. Kulabako 1, Swaib Semiyaga 1, Jan Willem Foppen 2 and Frank Kansiime 3
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
2
Department of Water Science and Engineering, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands
3
Department of Environmental Management, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4210; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104210
Received: 15 April 2020 / Revised: 16 May 2020 / Accepted: 19 May 2020 / Published: 21 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in the Development of Water Systems Management)
High urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has resulted in increased peri-urban groundwater contamination by on-site sanitation. The World Health Organization introduced Water Safety Plans (WSP) towards the elimination of contamination risks to water supply systems; however, their application to peri-urban groundwater sources has been limited. Focusing on Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania, this paper reviews limitations of the existing water regime in addressing peri-urban groundwater contamination through WSPs and normative attributes of Transition Management (TM) towards a sustainable solution. Microbial and nutrient contamination remain prevalent hazards in peri-urban SSA, arising from on-site sanitation within a water regime following Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. Limitations to implementation of WSPs for peri-urban groundwater protection include policy diversity, with low focus on groundwater; institutional incoherence; highly techno-centric management tools; and limited regard for socio-cultural and urban-poor aspects. In contrast, TM postulates a prescriptive approach promoted by community-led frontrunners, with flexible and multi-domain actors, experimenting through socio-technical tools towards a shared vision. Thus, a unified risk-based management framework, harnessing attributes of TM and IWRM, is proposed towards improved WSP implementation. The framework could assist peri-urban communities and policymakers in formulating sustainable strategies to reduce groundwater contamination, thereby contributing to improved access to safe water.
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Keywords:
contamination; integrated water resources management; groundwater; pollution; Sub-Saharan Africa; transition management; water safety plan
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Twinomucunguzi, F.R.B.; Nyenje, P.M.; Kulabako, R.N.; Semiyaga, S.; Foppen, J.W.; Kansiime, F. Reducing Groundwater Contamination from On-Site Sanitation in Peri-Urban Sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing Transition Management Attributes towards Implementation of Water Safety Plans. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4210.
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