Alexandria Bias
Implications of water access for achieving Sustainable Development Goals: A case study in Malawi
With billions of people around the world lacking access to safe drinking water, the water sector remains a key part of development initiatives globally. Water access is crucial to enabling achievement of multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An understanding of how and why water access permeates into other SDGs will improve the ability of future water projects to minimize costs and maximize benefits. The gravity-fed rural piped water program in Malawi, with schemes constructed between the 1970s and 1990s, aimed to provide water access to over a million Malawians. Systems experienced varying levels of success.
This work aims to identify and explain possible causal relationships between water access and other SDGs using two types of sources. First, a critical and thorough review of the available data for the Malawi case is used. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 individuals who have either (a) direct knowledge of the program, (b) good understanding of the national context, or (c) wider insight into Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector issues of relevance.
Fifteen of the seventeen SDGs were found to be connected to SDG6 for this case study, with eleven connected to project risks and ten as impacts to project success. Nine SDGs were identified as associated with key risk factors to project success including SDG1, SDG9, and SDG12. Five SDGs were identified as critical for enhancing project impact across SDGs including SDG3, SDG4, and SDG16. Some proposed solutions to mitigate risks and enhance the benefits of project success include: (a) using a private or semipublic management structure, (b) promoting local production of materials and products useful to water infrastructure and quality assessment, and (c) building climate-resilient infrastructure in remote areas receiving water service.