Social and cultural context of rural water and sanitation projects: case studies from Ghana
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Date
01/07/2013Author
Furber, Alison Mary
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Abstract
The research underpinning this work took place in the context of two rural water
and sanitation projects carried out in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The focus of
study was on the way engineers can make water and sanitation projects more
sustainable. In particular, emphasis was placed on the broad range of non-technical
factors engineers need to incorporate into the design of water and sanitation
systems and the processes they need to follow in order to achieve this, looking
specifically at the implications of community participation for design process,
project management and health and safety management.
The current high failure rate of rural water and sanitation projects provided the
impetus for carrying out this work. There is an urgent need to improve engineering
ability to provide vital life-saving infrastructure in developing countries as this
infrastructure is a pre-requisite for poverty reduction.
A critical realist perspective framed the research to allow socially constructed
realities to be combined with scientific and technical facts, and to allow inquiry in a
‘real world’ scenario where variables cannot be controlled individually. The
research questions were explored through the author’s involvement in two
community development projects involving water and sanitation system
implementation. The key methods employed were interview, both informal and
group, observation and reflection.
The contribution to knowledge made by this investigation is an increased
understanding of the relevance of social and cultural context for engineers engaged
in rural water and sanitation infrastructure provision through exploration of these
issues in a particular context. Also examined are health and safety aspects of rural water and sanitation projects where the community participate in construction.
Whilst health and safety had been explored in a developing country context there is
a lack of previous work looking at these issues in a community self-construction
context.
It was found that a broad range of factors need to be considered in the engineering
design of water and sanitation systems if projects are to have a chance of being
sustainable in the long term. In order to understand and design appropriately for
the context of rural projects with direct community involvement it is necessary to
adapt the engineering process to incorporate community participation fully into the
design and construction of water and sanitation facilities. Where communities are
involved in construction particular issues arise with regards to health and safety
management; many of the issues originate in the socio-cultural context and
motivations for community members to engage in hazardous construction activities
need to be understood and considered to properly manage the construction process.
To truly incorporate the ideas of local communities into engineering design,
engineers need a greater awareness of the assumptions they hold arising from their
scientific outlook.
Further research is required in different contexts in order to more clearly define the
boundaries of the findings of this study and begin to overcome the limitations of the
case study method. However, this research contributes to understanding how
engineers can improve their designs of water and sanitation infrastructure and the
processes they use to create more sustainable projects by looking at these issues in
one particular context. This contribution adds to understanding of how a lack of
access to water and sanitation infrastructure in rural regions of developing countries
can be overcome, which is ultimately necessary to meet the Millennium
Development Goals and as a pre-requisite to reducing poverty in the developing
world.