Constructing the future of water infrastructures: lessons from the cases of water saving and eco-sanitation

Bas van Vliet, Environmental Policy Group Wageningen University

Outline

Questioning the current attempts of shaping future water systems

Representations of water infrastructures Classifying Innovation in water

infrastructures The case of Eco sanitation The future of innovation in water

infrastructures Ways forward in social scientific research

Questioning the change in water infrastructuresHow to change such large technical systems? Which are based on huge technical

infrastructural networks being built from the late 19th century on…

With vested public (public health, national security)…

…and private (water industry) interests. With linkages to intimate aspects of everyday life

(toilet practices) and cultural robust standards of Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience

Current Innovation programmes

Being based on technological variation and selection… But who exactly varies and who selects? What is the dividing line in between?

…and experimentation that should lead to regime changes… As yet not clear how to design pilots as to make them

successful …Many subsidy programmes focus on

technological solutions… …and are geared towards endless experimentation

Lineair flow scheme

Down streamUpstream Upstream

Water supply system Waste water system

Abstraction-purification-storage-supply- consumption - discharge-transport- treatment- drainage-reuse

Purification

Consumption

Closed Loop System

Sociotechnical approaches

Factor 10

Factor 5

Factor 2

New system

20 years

Improvement in environmental efficiency

Factor 10

Factor 5

New system

20 years

Improvement in environmental efficiency

Time horizon

PredevelopmentTake off

Acceleration

ConsolidationMacro level (landscape)

Meso level (regimes)

Micro level (niches)

Classifying Innovation in water infrastructuresFour Dichotomies and one Mixture Upstream / Downstream Incremental / Radical Grass root / Top-down initiatives Technical / social

Modernised Mixtures

Upstream / downstream (or supply / demand side)

Upstream: new abstraction and purification methods (extraction from river shores, UV), wastewater treatment by nano membranes

Downstream: household water, water saving household devices, composting toilets, combined billing systems

Incremental or radical innovations

Incremental change within existing technological paradigm: storm water control, water saving showers, up-

scaling sewerage and treatment Radical change: break away from existing

regimes: dry toilets, distribution of use water, (& bottled

drinking water), on-site rain water recovery as source for drinking water.

Grass-root / Top-Down

Grass root: indebted to Appropriate Technology and Schumacher movement: citizen-initiatives, mostly with de-centralized,

off-grid, autonomous and easy applicable and manageable solutions.

Top-down: water companies, research institutes or

government initiatives, mostly centralized, high tech solutions, or holistic concepts such as ‘decentralized sanitation and reuse’

Technical / Social innovations

Technical: focus on the hardware, i.e. nano membrane filtration

Social: focus on ‘software’ new systems of cost recovery and billing for

water services

Modernised Mixtures

High-tech next to low-tech solutions in one system

Socio-technical approach Integrated into the mainstream built-

environment Living up to present demands of high Comfort,

cleanliness and convenience levels/ compatible with ‘modern life (styles)’

Developed by (utility) companies/ providers in creative dialogue with end-users as co-producing civilians

Small is Beautiful

Combined water and waste flows

Low cost, flexible systems

Large scale, fixed price systems

Low involvement of end-users

Decentralisedorganisation

Central organisation

High involvement of end-users

Separated water and waste flows

Large is ConventionalModernised Mixtures

Example Eco sanitation

Group of environmental technologists, specialists in on-site systems of waste water treatment. Prominent critics of sewer systems since the early 1970s

While on-site eco-sanitation systems have been successfully implemented in many developing countries, diffusion in Europe is lagging behind

Within project: chance to apply and test such technologies in real settings

Closed Loop System

Ecosan options

Liernur system 1870-1912

Story Line Technology Developers Ecosanitation

Sewer systems are wasting water, energy, nutrients and building matarials

Eco-sanitation keeps waste concentrated, which enables more efficient treatment, and produces energy (methane)

It is simple and proven technology

Some peculiarities

The sewer system is a dominating technological system and is almost everywhere available

Users do not want to be bothered (again) on how their feces and urine are being treated

For which problem is Eco-sanitation a solution? Is it the water saving and do we have a lack of

water? Is it the reuse of nutrients and is there a lack of

them in Dutch agriculture? Is it the vulnerability of the current sewer

system? Then how robust is on-site eco-sanitation?

Is it the high costs of sewer system maintenance? Then can eco-sanitation be cheaper?

Social Scientific Story Line Ecosanitation Implementation of Eco-sanitation

encompasses a socio-technical transition in sanitation, water supply and even in agriculture

The institutional & social & cultural robustness of sanitation practices seems to be highly underestimated

Only technical and environmental arguments will not sell this technology to the public

Multi-level change is not a one-way road! Macro level

(landscape)

Meso level (regimes)

Micro level (niches)

Ways forward in transitions in water infrastructures Redesign niche developments:

Experiment not only with technologies but with different modes of institutional organization along the whole chain

Take into account diverse problem definitions Raised at the upstream (fertiliser industry, agriculture)

and at the down stream level (citizen-consumers) Reframe “closed loop” rhetoric into more

fashionable topics: renewable energy, water stress, or standards of

comfort, cleanliness and convenience

Ways forward in Social scientific researchIn stead of traditional studies on ‘acceptation’ or ‘non-

technical barriers’: Rethinking niche management, and innovation

programmes that are based on technical variation and selection by small networks of techno-scientists (STS approach). Who and what constitutes the ‘variation environment’? How can ‘’selection environments’’ be broadened?

Studying the co-evolution of technology, institutions, cultural standards and social practices in domains of everyday life to obtain a reference to study experiments and innovation at

large (social practices approach, Spaargaren et al) To reveal today’s built-in futures of water infrastructures

Thank You

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