Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Dynamics, Practices, and Impacts of Small Water Enterprises on Urban Water Access and Distribution.

This doctoral dissertation project considers small water enterprises (SWE) and the role that these play in formal and informal urban water governance in growing cities. SWEs provide important services to millions of urban poor, but their existence may perpetuate and reinforce socio-economic inequalities. This project will investigate this tension by examining the factors that condition SWE entry into urban water markets, how and where SWEs provide services, and the ways in which SWEs relate to and overlap with formal water delivery systems, policies, and reforms. Research to date suggests that economic liberalization measures in cities reduce the quality of life for residents, particularly the urban poor, because of scaled back social supports. As a result NGOs, the private sector, and informal activities play a greater role in the provision of social services. This, however, can reinforce socio-economic disparities as informal activities are often precarious and NGO and private sector activities inadequately incorporate the voices and participation of urban residents. Urban water utilities and systems are one of many sectors that experienced significant reforms in the form of greater private sector participation in the past twenty years, yet such reforms are rarely problem-free because past water policies were often politically charged. These reforms tend to reinforce socio-economic inequalities as new management logics emphasize profitability and demand management within the water utility at the expensive of social equity. This project will build on analyses of privatization and commercialization of urban water systems by drawing from research in urban political economy on the rise of informal, private, and NGO services, in order to systematically analyze the roles and effects of SWEs. The research integrates geographic information science (GIS), survey analysis, and ethnography, to systematically assess the spatial dynamics of access and distribution of water, the role of SWEs in urban water governance, and the relationship between SWEs and formal water governance by considering the case of Amman, Jordan.

Results of this research will be of interest to scientists and policymakers in places where there is an intensification of water scarcity issues. The concerns addressed in this case have the potential to provide critical insights that may guide planning and development elsewhere in the Middle East and also in other water scarce areas, such as the US southwest. This study will shed light on how SWEs might improve water distribution and access and the way in which they may provide to relief overburdened water utilities without reinforcing social inequalities. Findings will be shared with community members, academics, and policy makers at regional and national conferences, workshops, and through various academic and popular publications. As a Doctoral Research Improvement award, this project will also provide support for a promising graduate student to establish an independent research career.