Climate-Resilient Inclusive Urban WASH in Melanesian Pacific

The International WaterCentre at Griffith University

Climate Resilience Research (WRA-CR09)

Research theme: Systems strengthening for climate-resilient, inclusive urban WASH 

Research focus: Influencing and strengthening planning systems for climate-resilient and inclusive WASH in underserved urban settlements in Melanesian Pacific.

Location: Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea

Partners: International WaterCentre at Griffith University (IWC), University of South Pacific, Vanuatu National University, University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), WaterAid Papua New Guinea, UACS Consulting

"Our participatory WASH research is bridging urban planning, public health and WASH. We are filling an evidence gap in urban Melanesia by bringing to light more locally relevant or locally collected information and data that addresses climate resilience in WASH planning.”

Dr Regina Souter, Director, International WaterCentre at Griffith University 

Research Description

In Melanesia, growing urban populations driven by migration and limited affordable housing are leading to the expansion of informal settlements that lack secure land tenure and access to infrastructure and services. WASH services in these settlements are historically inadequate, with uneven distribution across urban centres.

While some progress has been made in formalising settlements and improving service provision, there are critical gaps in planning systems and the political economy for climate-resilient WASH in urban informal settlements. The urgency to address the inaccessibility of safe water and sanitation services is heightened by the rapid growth of informal settlements and the increasing vulnerability of existing services to climate change impacts.

Current research highlights the need to integrate WASH into urban planning and shift the focus from hardware options to the functioning of a city's service delivery system. City-wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) provides a framework for this, but in the context of Melanesian informal settlements, adaptive, mixed, and incremental approaches are necessary. There is a lack of urban development leadership and limited capacity for widespread change in settlements, posing challenges to the long-term sustainability and climate resilience of WASH services.

This regional research project is strengthening systems for climate-resilient WASH services in urban informal settlements by exploring decision and planning support systems for urban planning and WASH, political and social advocacy methods, and ways of engaging with settlement residents to progress collaborative planning. It is doing so through:

• research and development on planning support systems (tools and activities) for integrated and collaborative planning across different stakeholder groups
• including citizen science to assist with localised climate science and knowledge
• leveraging strengths of existing decision and planning support systems via cross-country regional learning and sharing
• research (formative and behavioural) to influence political and societal support for improved services to informal settlements.  

Climate change information and data is vital for decision-making and future planning for cities to improve resilience, and WASH planning is no different. However, the scale, resolution and uncertainty of available data can, at times, be a barrier to planning – it is either presented at a country level, so the expected impacts to specific settlements or urban areas cannot be reasonably discerned, or it is presented with too high a level of uncertainty or resolution to inform decision-making.

Variation around the type and resolution of climate-related information required to inform resilience at different levels (individual, collective, systems) is also present, though there is an evidence gap in urban Melanesia as to what is available and of use. More locally relevant or locally collected information and data will have a role to play in this, and this research will contribute to that by using citizen science and participatory GIS methods to engage with settlement residents. 

This research seeks to explicitly explore how and whether champions could influence political and societal attitudes about basic services in urban informal settlements in the context of a changing climate, and therefore build climate resilience. The mixed-methods approach includes theoretical grounding and literature reviews, collection of primary data, and co-creation of tools and approaches with stakeholders and rightsholder organisations. The aim is for the research to contribute to strengthening WASH and interrelated governance and planning systems.

The desired longer-term outcomes of this research are to:

• Increase the inclusiveness of WASH planning in urban Melanesia so that residents in informal settlements have access to more resilient WASH services.
• Highlight the WASH perspectives and voices of the residents of informal settlements in urban Melanesia.
• Broaden the perspectives of urban planning managers in Melanesia to recognise different types of data and analyses that can contribute to resilient planning.
• Contribute to an improved disaster and shock resiliency for urban environments in the Pacific.

Pathways to impact

1. Investigating local climate science and WASH information to inform collaborative planning support systems, for example:

• community-generated data on climate impacts on WASH service delivery models through household surveys and participatory research methods
• localised climate and hazard data review to assess opportunities for citizen contribution
• spatial modeling of climate hazard exposure for WASH service delivery models using existing environmental data
• development of a decision support system for climate-resilient and socially inclusive WASH
• input to existing guidelines and by-laws for climate-resilient water and sanitation service delivery models.

 2. Understanding political and societal attitudes to improving services in informal settlements through:

• formative research using key informant interviews and workshops to identify and motivate potential champions for improving services to informal settlements
• synthesis and adaptation of political economy analysis work for publication and stakeholder workshops.

 
3. Regional knowledge exchanges and skills development including:

• researcher knowledge and learning through in-country training, co-conducting of research, and a multi-country team workshop
• end-user and stakeholder knowledge and learning through face-to-face workshops, formative research participation, and co-development of resources
• two regional learning events to share strengths, challenges, and lessons among researchers and end-users
• researcher exchange visits to conduct capacity building on specific themes
• capacity building on spatial integration of diverse datasets for planning through online training sessions and a community-of-practice.

“We aren’t planning ahead for where settlers can live. They move in where they can, a settlement grows, and then the planning follows the settlers. This research aims to understand how those planning decisions for settlements can be improved, especially in terms of decisions about locally appropriate, climate-resilient and socially inclusive water and sanitation services.”

Dr Linus Digim’Rina, UPNG

Feature photo: An urban settlement in Solomon Islands (IWC)