Placing Sustainability at the Centre of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry

Carrard, Naomi R.

Placing Sustainability at the Centre of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry

Carrard, Naomi R.

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2022

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Carrard, Naomi R.
dc.date.accessioned	2022-12-19T23:46:34Z
dc.date.available	2022-12-19T23:46:34Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/164487
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Institute for Sustainable Futures.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	Globally, efforts to realise the human rights to water and sanitation are continuing in a context of rapid environmental change and pressing sustainability concerns. The water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector has long grappled with complex challenges of ensuring safe, lasting services for all. Yet WASH sector engagement with sustainability imperatives has been partial and focused on continuity of access to services. There is opportunity for the WASH sector to both benefit from, and contribute to, thinking and action towards sustainability transformations. The transdisciplinary inquiry documented in this thesis explored how WASH professionals can translate and implement sustainability concepts in sectoral research and practice. A problem-solving transdisciplinary orientation shaped the approach, engaging with sustainability transformations in a normative way. Application of conceptual frames and analytical heuristics reflected a pragmatic research perspective, and included planetary boundary thinking as well as frames and tools from circular economy and systems thinking scholarship. The inquiry comprised four studies that each contribute novel research at the intersection of WASH and sustainability, and together informed synthesised insights. A review of WASH sustainability discourse with reference to the planetary boundaries framework identified four themes and four opportunities for strengthening sectoral contributions to sustainability. Analysis of groundwater reliance and resource concerns in Southeast Asia and Pacific nations demonstrated why and how WASH professionals should engage in groundwater resource management. Life-cycle costing of a resource-oriented sanitation system in Sri Lanka contributed critical data on how much it costs, and who pays, to prioritise a resource-orientation in sanitation service delivery. The fourth and final study brought a select group of WASH professionals together to co-produce knowledge about foregrounding sustainability in the WASH sector, building on findings from each of the previous studies. The process generated ideas for individual and sectoral action towards sustainability transformations, and demonstrated the value of knowledge co-production as a mechanism for progressing WASH sustainability discourse. Synthesis of insights across the inquiry identified three emergent themes for informing WASH professional practice: (i) reframing sector perspectives towards a deeper resource-orientation; (ii) reimagining purpose to foreground longer-term goals and imperatives, such that they inform WASH professionals’ everyday actions; and (iii) reflexively researching, exploring how researchers can ethically shape WASH discourse in line with the ideals of sustainability transformations. The latter theme positions WASH researchers within the wider sector context, articulating a compass for future critiquing and reimagining of WASH in line with the ideals of sustainability transformations.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/164487/2/02whole.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/ppc
dc.title	Placing Sustainability at the Centre of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

Globally, efforts to realise the human rights to water and sanitation are continuing in a context of rapid environmental change and pressing sustainability concerns. The water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector has long grappled with complex challenges of ensuring safe, lasting services for all. Yet WASH sector engagement with sustainability imperatives has been partial and focused on continuity of access to services. There is opportunity for the WASH sector to both benefit from, and contribute to, thinking and action towards sustainability transformations. The transdisciplinary inquiry documented in this thesis explored how WASH professionals can translate and implement sustainability concepts in sectoral research and practice. A problem-solving transdisciplinary orientation shaped the approach, engaging with sustainability transformations in a normative way. Application of conceptual frames and analytical heuristics reflected a pragmatic research perspective, and included planetary boundary thinking as well as frames and tools from circular economy and systems thinking scholarship. The inquiry comprised four studies that each contribute novel research at the intersection of WASH and sustainability, and together informed synthesised insights. A review of WASH sustainability discourse with reference to the planetary boundaries framework identified four themes and four opportunities for strengthening sectoral contributions to sustainability. Analysis of groundwater reliance and resource concerns in Southeast Asia and Pacific nations demonstrated why and how WASH professionals should engage in groundwater resource management. Life-cycle costing of a resource-oriented sanitation system in Sri Lanka contributed critical data on how much it costs, and who pays, to prioritise a resource-orientation in sanitation service delivery. The fourth and final study brought a select group of WASH professionals together to co-produce knowledge about foregrounding sustainability in the WASH sector, building on findings from each of the previous studies. The process generated ideas for individual and sectoral action towards sustainability transformations, and demonstrated the value of knowledge co-production as a mechanism for progressing WASH sustainability discourse. Synthesis of insights across the inquiry identified three emergent themes for informing WASH professional practice: (i) reframing sector perspectives towards a deeper resource-orientation; (ii) reimagining purpose to foreground longer-term goals and imperatives, such that they inform WASH professionals’ everyday actions; and (iii) reflexively researching, exploring how researchers can ethically shape WASH discourse in line with the ideals of sustainability transformations. The latter theme positions WASH researchers within the wider sector context, articulating a compass for future critiquing and reimagining of WASH in line with the ideals of sustainability transformations.

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