Water and sanitation in the Buenos Aires metropolitan region: Fragmented markets, splintering effects?

This paper discusses the provision of water and sanitation services and the related urban impacts in Buenos Aires circa 2005. The first part of the paper focuses on the metropolitan region (BAMR) which is larger than the area served by the Aguas Argentinas S.A. (AASA) concession (i.e. the capital and its conurbano). It highlights a form of institutional fragmentation that is reflected in the diverse management practices of the numerous service providers and results in differentiated levels of and access to services. The paper discusses the technical, economic and regulatory factors that have historically resulted in this institutional fragmentation. The second part of the article focuses on AASA’s water concession agreement. It demonstrates that, although the agreement had an in-built splintering logic, its implementation led to a more “integrated approach” based on the “reality on the ground”. On the whole, the conclusion regarding the application of the splintering urbanism concept to Buenos Aires is a mixed one and depends on the scale of observation. Although at regional level (BAMR), a form of “institutional fragmentation” would appear to be obvious, it is the result of a long and complex historical process and, while recent neo-liberal reforms in service provisions have “cemented” this fragmentation, they did not actually cause it. If we take the AASA service area in isolation, the trend in the decade following the contracting out of the service has been one of improved service provision and access—although this was not achieved through increased integration of the supply system. Finally, in the case of the Buenos Aires metropolitan region, the splintering urbanism thesis defended by Marvin and Graham needs to be nuanced in several significant ways.     

Backward waters,modern waters: Perception-Based Regional Mapping territory uses and water-related sanitary stakes in Luang Phabang area (Lao PDR)

This paper examines the suitability of the PBRM, a mapping tool based on the perceptions of local stakeholders, for assessing the connection between land uses and health issues. The area, rural Laos around Luang Phabang city, between the Mekong River valley and mountains, seems to have overcome the formal territorial organization based on exposure risks towards an organization based on access to health and medical facilities. In addition, differential access to safe drinking water has been quite solved by the implementation of private can distribution networks. However, these rapid changes accentuate the social gap between well-connected lowlands and valleys on one hand, and mountain areas on the other hand, increasingly sidelined from this transition. Methodologically, PBRM method explores broader issues at a broader scale but does not give an easy access to non-spatial criteria. Plus, the limits of the SHUs (Spatial Homogeneous Unit) the PBRM establishes are geographically precise regarding topology but not spatiality. These results are action-oriented towards local and development-oriented issues.     

Civil society and sanitation hydropolitics: A case study of South Africa’s Vaal River Barrage

The Vaal River Barrage, situated on the south-eastern border of the Gauteng Province, has been part of the hydrological landscape of South Africa’s most populous and economically active region for more than eight decades. After its completion in 1923 the Barrage was compromised by the construction, upstream, of the Vaal Dam (1930-1933). Today the Vaal River Barrage is primarily a storage facility of sewage and industrial waste water. South Africa’s transition to a multi-racial democracy in 1994 saw a number of socio-economic and political transformations that affected the water infrastructure. In the field of sanitation infrastructure in particular, conditions have deteriorated to the extent that the health of people in many parts of the country is being compromised.Using the Vaal River Barrage as a case study, this article outlines the efforts by civil society to make the relevant government sectors aware of this hazardous state of affairs. particular attention is given to save our Vaal environment (SAVE), a non-governmental organisation, at the helm of an active campaign to reduce pollution in the Vaal River Barrage.     

Recovery of Plant Nutrients from Dilute Solutions of Human Urine and Preliminary Investigations on Pot Trials

Within the context of Ecological Sanitation (ECOSAN), human urine has been the subject of research and practice as a potential fertilizer in the recent years. Although quite a lot had been done with original undiluted urine with promising outcomes, not much appears in the literature which concentrates on dilute solutions of urine. This is important because unless waterless toilets are employed, urine will be diluted with flush water in actual use. In this work, dilute solutions of urine are investigated with emphasis on the recovery of plant nutrients. A natural zeolite namely clinoptilolite was loaded with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium as an indirect route of processing urine. The results have revealed that hydrolysis is completed in shorter times in dilute samples. Clinoptilolite could successfully remove plant nutrients from all dilute solutions. Nitrogen could be recovered up to 86% with higher efficiencies at higher concentrations in general. Recovery of orthophosphates increases with increasing concentration to reach 96%, however, potassium could not be recovered. The preliminary experiments with grass have revealed that nutrient loaded clinoptilolite was as effective as chemical fertilizers while direct application of original and diluted solutions of urine had shown inferior yields.     

Pro-poor sanitation technologies

It is estimated that at least two billion people have inadequate sanitation. The current situation in water and sanitation services for millions of peri-urban residents is starkly anti-poor and represents a major challenge for the 21st century. By virtue of its cost and water requirements, we would argue that conventional sewerage is an implicitly anti-poor technology. This paper summarises low-cost sanitation technologies that have been developed by engineers from around the world, and seeks to provide evidence that there is such a thing as a pro-poor technology. We argue that simplified sewerage is often the only sanitation technology that is technically feasible and economically appropriate for low income, high-density urban areas. Simplified sewerage will only truly be a pro-poor technology if issues such as lack of investment in sanitation, insufficient cost recovery for sanitation services, conservative technical standards favoured over innovation, low-cost technologies perceived as second class provision, the nature of peri-urban settlements, and lack of engagement with users, are addressed. So often, peri-urban sanitation schemes fail to exist, fail to be sustainable, or fail to be pro-poor. The challenge is for engineers, social scientists and other professionals to work together to make pro-poor sanitation a reality and interdisciplinarity the norm.     

Common sense principles governing potable water recycling in the southwestern US: Examining subjectivity of water stewards using Q methodology

The potential to supplement potable water supplies with highly treated municipal wastewater, or sewage, is of increasing interest to water planners in many parts of the world. Most of the current social science focuses on public acceptance, however there is a relative lack of research that explores the subjectivity of people who are involved with water recycling or water planning. This study draws on Gramscian theories of governance and Q Methodology to analyze common sense principles that are held by water stewards who currently govern potable water reuse in the southwestern United States. Two competing perspectives emerged from the analyses, which I label neosanitarian and ecosanitarian. Drawing upon tenets established in the Progressive Era, neosanitarians believe that use of recycled water is an appropriate way to expand urban drinking water supplies. Drawing upon tenets established in ecology, ecosanitarians are not opposed to potable water recycling, however they are also interested in radical alternatives to the sanitary status quo. For example, neosanitarians favor advanced wastewater treatment, while ecosanitarians prefer composting toilets and preventative actions. Differences between the common sense views pivot on ideas about the most appropriate technology but also reflect contested visions of ideal society.     

Tentative nitrogen budget for pit latrines – eastern Botswana

 A major problem with on-site sanitation is nitrate pollution of the groundwater. A tentative nitrogen budget is established for pit latrines in eastern Botswana. The ammonia volatilisation was found to be negligible while leaching varied largely from about 1 to 50%. Leaching of nitrate was assessed by using chloride as tracer, assuming two sources of chloride, atmospheric deposition and the use of common salt in food. The initial content of nitrogen in excreta was assessed from nutritional data. The residual nitrogen in abandoned latrines as found by analysis, was 15–20%. The remainder should be denitrification which would then be in the order of 30–70%. That denitrification is important is supported by an elevated N-isotope ratio in groundwater and in deep-rooted non-N-fixing trees. The varying leaching rate provides a possibility of checking it by sealing the latrines. Since about 95% of the nitrogen in human excreta is present in the urine, an even more attractive solution would be urine-separating latrines with surface near percolation of the urine in the root zone of the vegetation, utilising it for crop growth. Since such latrines are used elsewhere in the world the problem is not technical but social acceptability. Received: 27 February 1998 · Accepted 14 September 1998