Strengthening rural community water safety planning in Pacific Island countries: evidence and lessons from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) collectively have the lowest rates of access to safely managed or basic drinking water and sanitation globally. They are also the least urbanised, have dynamic socioeconomic and increasing climate-linked challenges. Community-based water managers need to respond to va...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of water and health Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 467 - 486
Main Authors:	Souter, Regina T, Ruuska, Doug, Pene, Sarah, Benjamin, Collin, Funubo, Sheila, Beal, Cara D, Sanderson, Rosanna, Batikawai, Suliasi, Ravai, Ana, Antoinette-Wickham, Tema, Rankin, Tom, Peter, Lindah, Molitambe, Heather, Theophile, Gaston, Shrestha, Sachita, Kotra, Krishna K, Bugoro, Hugo, Panda, Nixon, Deo, Vimal, Love, Mark
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 01-03-2024
Subjects:	Pacific Island Countries drinking water management Water safety planning (WSP) capacity development collective action community facilitation
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Pacific Island Countries (PICs) collectively have the lowest rates of access to safely managed or basic drinking water and sanitation globally. They are also the least urbanised, have dynamic socioeconomic and increasing climate-linked challenges. Community-based water managers need to respond to variability in water availability and quality caused by a range of hazards. Water Safety Planning (WSP), a widely adopted approach to assessing water supply, offers a risk-based approach to mitigating both existing and future hazards. WSP is adaptable, and making modifications to prescribed WSP to adapt it to the local context is common practice. Within the Pacific Community Water Management Plus research project, we used formative research and co-development processes to understand existing local modifications, whether further modifications are required, and, to develop additional modifications to WSP in Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The types of additional local modifications we recommend reflect the unique context of PICs, including adjusting for community management of water supplies and required collective action, community governance systems, levels of social cohesion in communities, and preferred adult-learning pedagogies. Incorporating modifications that address these factors into future WSP will improve the likelihood of sustained and safe community water services in Pacific and similar contexts.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1477-8920 1996-7829
DOI:	10.2166/wh.2024.144