Rethinking impact: a critical look at technology solutions in water and development
Technology-driven interventions are often promoted in the water and development world, as catalysts for transformative change by their proponents—international agencies, governments, scientists, and others typically involved in their financing, design and implementation. Yet, amidst their optimism, a critical concern emerges when evaluating the real impact of the proposed technologies: How effective are these ‘solutions’ in addressing on-the-ground water challenges that affect the lives of people in target communities?
The recent Water and Development Symposium, organised by IHE Delft’s Water and Development Partnership Programme, provided a forum to explore this question in a session titled “Technology for Impact”. The session engaged three technology-led projects in a nuanced discussion that acknowledged both the benefits and consequences associated with using technology to address water-related challenges in local communities.
Visualising risks
Technology can function as a valuable tool for narrowing information gaps and cultivating a better understanding of the challenges faced by communities. For instance, in collaboration with international emergency relief organizations, development tools will be used for sanitation provision in Bangladesh. Their aim is to collect, analyse and share data on public health and environmental risks in refugee camps, as a component of the newly financed RiskWASH project: Risk-based decision-making frameworks for humanitarian purposes.
The project will adopt several tools related to risk assessment to the humanitarian sector. Through participatory techniques, for instance, data will be gathered to implement faecal sludge management in the refugee camps. “We are using three different tools in the development sector to assess risks at different states of the sanitation value chain”, said Claire Furlong, a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Non-Sewered Sanitation at IHE Delft involved in the project. One of the tools, SaniPath, looks at visualising the amount of risks there are in different transmission pathways for different groups of people—a process which presents challenges when working in humanitarian contexts.
“We are using three different tools in the development sector to assess risks at different states of the sanitation value chain,”
Envisioning futures with maps
In Kenya, the recently established RS-4C project: Remote Sensing for basin-level community-driven applications, aims to produce maps together with local communities using data that proves useful for the communities in their advocacy efforts. “The need for scientific data is very critical” to inform policy and decision-making, said Violet Matiru, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Millennium Community Development Initiatives, one of the project partners. “You can use maps to envision futures” she said, adding that the maps should ideally inform, inspire, alarm, and involve communities.
Matiru described a case study of the Lari Swamp in the upper Athi River Basin, sharing how the swamp has been recognised by the government as a crucial groundwater storage area, yet there is limited information about the swamp and the river it supplies downstream. Utilising remote sensing technology, the RS-4C project will use satellites to capture images and measurements remotely, aiding communities and the government in understanding and jointly managing the water resources in the river basin in a more sustainable and equitable way.
Data for decision-making
Remote sensing data can also be used to improve agricultural yield and water-use efficiency. Using this technology, interventions were carried out in seven project sites spanning multiple countries in Africa and West Asia, as part of the WaterPIP project: Water Productivity in Practice.
WaterPIP utilises data and information from WaPOR, an open access data repository hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization. The project aims to equip governments and farmers with this data to facilitate decision-making, such as optimal timing for planting and irrigation to mitigate water wastage.
"We developed tools, scripts and technical analysis using the WaPOR data to map water productivity variations and irrigation performance assessment,”
Exclusive technologies
Although technology can be beneficial in providing important data to address water-related challenges in communities, issues arise when these interventions are disconnected from the local context. The people in these communities often possess personal and practical insights into the specific water and sanitation problems they face. Technologies developed without their input risk being irrelevant or ineffective.
This becomes particularly evident when considering the complex socio-economic and sometimes deeply geopolitical realities of the low- and middle-income countries. Worse yet, these technologies may have unintended consequences that reinforce existing inequalities for already marginalised groups.
Reflective lessons from the WaterPIP project
The WaterPIP project currently aims at facilitating a Knowledge and Action Network and is fine-tuning previously developed datasets and scripts, together with smallholder farmers in marginalized communities, thereby addressing the challenges of its former top-down approach. These are important lessons learned:
- Scale matters: Earlier phases of the project revealed that remote sensing data was not universally applicable. The resolution of WaPOR datasets proved most effective for large plots under monocropping, while its utility for small-scale farms was limited.
- Specificity is key: There was also a need for better alignment with on-the-ground activities and understanding of the specific needs of local stakeholders to ensure the relevance of the project's applications. “We also needed to be better integrated with what’s happening locally to understand what are their needs in order to make these applications relevant”.
Co-creating technology for impact
The negative consequences of implementing donor-centric, technology-based interventions demand a shift in approach. But, how can projects ensure effective and meaningful impact? It begins with valuing local wisdom and ensuring that specific needs are considered. This means designing useful and relevant technologies created with local communities as active partners in the development process.
“There is a need to involve communities in defining not just the problem, but also the solutions” said Matiru, a key aim of the RS-4C project. By doing so, projects can ensure that the proposed solutions are both relevant and sensitive to the context of the regions they intend to serve.
“There is a need to involve communities in defining not just the problem, but also the solutions,”
“There is need to also demystify technology,” explains Matiru, by making it less complex, especially for those without a technical background. Academics have a role to play in making technologies inclusive by ensuring that community perspectives are included. This involves simplifying technical concepts, jargon, and processes—making them accessible to a broader audience.
With similar intentions, RiskWASH co-created its project with the humanitarian sector and is hopeful that this will lead to co-ownership and adoption of the tools and processes developed, aiming for meaningful impact over time. A crucial point in this is to not only make data available, but also provide the means to act upon this data.
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Denise Vanzie
Communication Advisor