Monthly Subscription Starting at AED 99 + VAT

Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries Part 2: Developing Effective Interventions
  • Level Professional
  • Duration 25 hours
  • Course by University of Manchester
  • Offered by

About

Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries Part 2 is our second MOOC in a two-part sequence, and looks at ‘Developing Effective Interventions’. Here we invite you to develop analytical skills and deep understanding about a complex, controversial policy problem – one with no simple, easy answers. About half a billion people on our planet still lack access to improved water supplies and about two billion do not have improved sanitation services, leading to an unknown but very large number of avoidable deaths each year from water-related diseases. Millions of dollars are spent on avoidable health care expenditures, and people – mostly women – spend many billions of hours carrying water from sources outside the home. Reducing these costs is a major global challenge for us all in the 21st century. Join us to explore the challenging and complex political, economic, social, and technical dimensions of the policy interventions that donors, national governments and water utilities use to address this challenge. This second MOOC consists of the following seven sessions: • Session 1: Introduction and how our ‘ancient instincts’ affect water policy interventions. • Session 2: Planning better policy interventions: Roles, features and examples of planning protocols. • Session 3: Water pricing, tariff design and subsidies. • Session 4: Providing information to households and communities to improve water and sanitation conditions. • Session 5: Changing the institutions that deliver water and sanitation services: Privatization in developing countries. • Session 6: Changing institutions: Lessons from the UK water privatization story. • Session 7: Changing institutions: Improving regulation of the water and sanitation sector. Your instructors for this course have worked in and studied this sector for many years. Professor Dale Whittington has worked on water and sanitation policy and planning issues for over 40 years in more than two dozen low and middle-income countries. Dr Duncan Thomas has worked in the UK and European water sectors for 15 years, focusing on overcoming barriers to technological, organizational, regulatory and policy innovations. Please watch this introductory video outlining the course: https://youtu.be/KkBmo3EKkkI

Modules

Session 1

    • 6 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 3 Discussion
Show info about module content

3 Discussions

  • Introductions - please introduce yourself
  • How can ‘ancient instincts’ responses to water policy interventions be overcome?
  • Are any water-related ‘ancient instincts’ still useful?

6 Videos

  • Welcome to the course - Introduction
  • Video 1-0 Introducing the role of ancient instincts
  • Video 1-1 Ancient instincts 1: State and public rejection of water policy proposals
  • Video 1-2 Ancient instincts 2: Examples
  • Video 1-3 Ancient instincts 3: Water-related
  • Video 1-4 Ancient instincts 4: Water policy-related

1 Readings

  • Introduction and how our ‘ancient instincts’ affect water policy interventions

Session 2

    • 6 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 4 Discussion
Show info about module content

4 Discussions

  • Which of the four planning protocols would you use for water projects?
  • Do the drawbacks of participatory approaches outweigh their benefits?
  • What would you change?
  • Is long-term commitment to participation possible?

6 Videos

  • Video 2-0 Does better planning result in better outcomes? An example from Bolivia
  • Video 2-1 Four types of planning protocols commonly used around the world
  • Video 2-2 Demand-driven planning: Designing for community preferences and affordability
  • Video 2-3 Do demand-driven planning protocols work? Evidence from Bolivia, Ghana and Peru
  • Video 2-4 When do participatory, demand-driven approaches work best? Evidence from a World Bank study
  • Video 2-5 Conversation between Arif Hasan and Diana Mitlin on participation

1 Readings

  • Planning better policy interventions: Roles, features and examples of planning protocols

Session 3

    • 9 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 3 Discussion
Show info about module content

3 Discussions

  • Designing Tariffs
  • Raising prices for water services as part of a sector reform agenda.
  • How can we change the culture around increasing block tariffs (IBTs)?

9 Videos

  • Video 3-0 Introducing municipal water pricing and tariff design
  • Video 3-1 What are the objectives of tariff design?
  • Video 3-2 Possible types of tariff structures
  • Video 3-3 Current tariff structures in low and middle-income countries
  • Video 3-4 Problems with increasing block tariffs (IBTs)
  • Video 3-5 Designing and targeting subsidies in the water and sanitation sector in LDCs
  • Video 3-6 Distribution of subsidies in Chile and Colombia
  • Video 3-7 Evidence on subsidy schemes in Chile and Colombia
  • Video 3-8 Designing improved water subsidy schemes

1 Readings

  • Roles, features and problems of water pricing, tariff design and subsidies

Session 4

    • 9 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 3 Discussion
Show info about module content

3 Discussions

  • Which of the information treatment approaches do you believe is best?
  • Could the information included on the water utility bills you receive be improved?
  • Are you for or against the UN Declaration on the Human Right to Water?

9 Videos

  • Video 4-0 Introduction to information treatments as a policy intervention
  • Video 4-1 Information treatment Case 1: In-house water quality testing
  • Video 4-2 Information treatment Case 2: Information provision via water bills and evidence from OWASA, Chapel Hill, USA
  • Video 4-3 Information treatment Case 3: Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)
  • Video 4-4 Information treatment Case 3: Evidence from CLTS in Mali, West Africa
  • Video 4-5 Information treatment Case 4: Information provision via water bills in Jerico, Colombia
  • Video 4-6 Information treatment Case 4: UN Declaration on the Human Right to Water
  • Video 4-7 Conversation with Barbara Evans on CLTS
  • Video 4-8 Conservation with Kamal Kar on CLTS (in 7 parts)

1 Readings

  • Providing information to households and communities to improve water and sanitation conditions

Session 5

    • 8 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 2 Discussion
Show info about module content

2 Discussions

  • Do you think there is a ‘best’ PPP ‘deal structure’?
  • What are your views generally on water privatization?

8 Videos

  • Video 5-0 Introduction to public private partnerships (PPP)
  • Video 5-1 The seven main types of PPP deal structures
  • Video 5-2 Some challenges of PPPs from the private operator’s perspective
  • Video 5-3 Do PPPs improve performance? Evidence from a World Bank study
  • Video 5-4 Comparative experiences with PPPs in the water and sanitation sector: China versus India
  • Video 5-5 Conversation with Wu Xun on privatization in China and India
  • Video 5-6 Conversation with Leong Ching on the devil’s shift in water privatization in Jakarta, Indonesia
  • Video 5-7 Conversation with Eduardo Araral on water privatization in Manila, Republic of the Philippines

1 Readings

  • Changing the institutions that deliver water and sanitation services: Privatization in lesser developing countries

Session 6

    • 7 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 3 Discussion
Show info about module content

3 Discussions

  • Would customers have been better off if the England and Wales water utility sector had remained in public ownership?
  • Do you think taxpayers received a fair price for the England and Wales water industry in the initial offering?
  • Can you think of a better way that the initial public offering could have be designed?

7 Videos

  • Video 6-0 The significance of institutional change in the UK water sector: Privatization and regulation
  • Video 6-1 The historical setting and promises of the UK privatization programme
  • Video 6-2 Why full divestiture for the England and Wales water industry? Four prerequisites
  • Video 6-3 Determining a sale price for the England and Wales water industry
  • Video 6-4 Some outcomes of UK water privatization, part 1: Good news
  • Video 6-5 Some outcomes of UK water privatization, part 2: Bad news
  • Video 6-6 Some outcomes of UK water privatization, part 3: Unclear future?

1 Readings

  • Changing institutions: Lessons from the UK water privatization story

Session 7

    • 8 Videos
    • 1 Readings
    • 6 Discussion
    • 1 PeerReview
Show info about module content

1 Peer Review

  • A proposal of a two-part information strategy to reform water tariffs in Egypt

6 Discussions

  • What can be learned from the UK water regulation experience to use in other countries around the world?
  • What factors contributed to the success of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s reforms?
  • The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority
  • The physical conditions in Phnom Penh
  • Political economy factors in Phnom Penh
  • Why do you think the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority was partially privatized?

8 Videos

  • Video 7-0 Regulation of the water utilities in LDCs
  • Video 7-1 UK water regulation 1: The original vision
  • Video 7-2 UK water regulation 2: Evolution in practice, 1989 to 2016
  • Video 7-3 UK water regulation 3: Innovation and future challenges
  • Video 7-4 Conservation with Stephen Littlechild on inventing the UK regulatory model
  • Video 7-5 Conservation with Regina Finn on reforming UK water regulation
  • Video 7-6 The case of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Video 7-7 Part 2 MOOC Overall Wrap-up

1 Readings

  • Session 7: Changing institutions: Improving regulation of the water and sanitation sector

Video interview with with Professor Tony Allan

    • 1 Readings
Show info about module content

1 Readings

  • Video interview with Professor Tony Allan

Section A – Introducing the ‘virtual water’ concept and its implications

    • 4 Videos
Show info about module content

4 Videos

  • Part 1: Definitions and terminology: ‘Virtual water’, publishing it and its critiques; blue, green, big and small water; problem-sheds and watersheds; valuing labour, land and water
  • Part 2: Global ‘virtual water’ solutions for agricultural ‘big water’ and local solutions for urban ‘small water’
  • Part 3: Politics, risks and communities around water and food security: Water, environmental and financial accountants; food producers, markets and consumers
  • Part 4: Global trends in water and food: Food security, population, virtual water trade, international relations and peace

Section B – Hardware and software related to the ‘virtual water’ concept

    • 2 Videos
    • 1 Readings
Show info about module content

2 Videos

  • Part 5: New technologies and approaches for global challenges around water scarcity: Urban water recycling and desalination in Israel
  • Part 6: Ancient instincts, entitlement to water, privatisation, and remaining unaware of ‘big water’ in food

1 Readings

  • Addendum to video narrative

Section C – Human dimensions behind inventing the ‘virtual water’ concept

    • 4 Videos
Show info about module content

4 Videos

  • Part 7: ‘Virtual water’ as an inter-disciplinary innovation for water policy and water politics
  • Part 8: Water metrics for ‘virtual water’: Origins, uptake and impact of water footprinting
  • Part 9: Professor Allan’s university working conditions when ‘virtual water’ was invented and adopted
  • Part 10: Professor Allan’s advice for students to become creative, courageous, well-read and effective water policy researchers

Auto Summary

Explore the intricate world of water supply and sanitation policy in developing countries with "Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries Part 2: Developing Effective Interventions." This engaging course, led by experts Professor Dale Whittington and Dr. Duncan Thomas, dives into the political, economic, social, and technical aspects of creating effective interventions. Over seven sessions, you'll gain valuable insights and analytical skills to tackle this global challenge. Perfect for professionals, the course is available via Coursera with both Starter and Professional subscription options. Join now to make a real impact.

Dr Duncan Thomas
Instructors

Dr Duncan Thomas

Prof Dale Whittington
Instructors

Prof Dale Whittington