Beyond COP26: Lessons from South Africa on water and community health

This podcast series shares insights on participatory water governance, from Bushbuckridge sub-district in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa. This work is part of the wider Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR) embedded within the Agincourt Health Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) of the University of Witwatersrand in collaboration with Aberdeen University. The VAPAR programme aims to expand the knowledge base through creation of legitimate learning platforms for action health equity. Community stakeholders and local government service providers share the complexities of service delivery and how the lack of community participation in water governance affects marginalized rural communities.

Despite legislative and policy commitments to the right of water, cooperative governance and public participation, there are limited opportunities for communities to participate in public service planning. This especially impacts negatively on marginalized rural communities, relying on public services for health and wellbeing.

Applying participatory methods and tools, community stakeholders identified the lack of safe water to be a priority health concern. Repeated and prolonged periods without piped water; unreliable and unavailable infrastructure,; contaminated water sources; extensive waste, litter and dumping; inadequate service delivery; and poor water supply exacerbated by drought were reported in the local area. Several interconnected social, behavioural and health impacts were associated with this lack of safe water, including infectious diseases, compromised sanitation, hunger and malnutrition, social unrest and service delivery protests.

Community engagement allow community stakeholders to take an active role in priority setting and collective action towards addressing community priorities. When spaces are created for dialogue and collective action, extending beyond passive involvement, trust is established between stakeholders and community power built; allowing for cooperative governance.

This series is hosted by research fellow, Jennifer Hove, reflecting COP 26 and exploring the role of participatory action research in addressing water challenges in rural communities, as part of her doctoral research embedded within the multi-year VAPAR programme.

More information on the VAPAR programme is available at http://www.vapar.org/

• No. of episodes: 2
• Latest episode: 2022-10-01
• Science Earth Sciences Social Sciences

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