Work

Intermittent Domestic Water Supply: A Critical Review and Analysis of Causal-Consequential Pathways

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: Communities in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries, face obstacles in supplying continuous water to household consumers. Authorities often cite water scarcity as the cause, but we demonstrate that environmental constraints constitute only one aspect of a multi-dimensional problem. By asking what causes intermittent domestic water supply, this literature review (129 articles) identifies 47 conditions of intermittent systems and the causal-consequential pathways between them that can reinforce intermittency. These pathways span several disciplines including engineering, government administration and anthropology, and when viewed together they (1) emphasize the human drivers of intermittency; (2) suggest generalized interventions; and (3) reveal a gap in the literature in terms of meaningful categorizations of the reliability of intermittent supplies. Based on the reliability of consumers’ water access, we propose three categories of intermittency—predictable, irregular, and unreliable—to facilitate comparisons between case studies and transfers of solutions.

Source: Water

DOI: 10.3390/w8070274

Authors: S. Galaitsi, Robert Russell, Amahl Bishara, John Durant, Jennifer Bogle, Annette Huber-Lee

Institutions: Stockholm Environment Institute, Tufts University

Language: English

Topic: Water Resource Management and Quality

Subfield: Water Science and Technology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Clean water and sanitation

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137