Project Description
Inclusive urban water, sanitation and hygiene in Melanesia was a 2-phase research project that explored inclusive and climate-resilient urban WASH in Melanesian informal settlements. The research was led by a partnership of International WaterCentre at Griffith University and The University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Vanuatu, with professionals and academics from the University of Papua New Guinea, WaterAid PNG, and UACS Consulting and supported by the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund. The aim of the project was to strengthen WASH and interrelated governance systems – particularly, planning support systems such as spatial models, decision-support-schemas, local knowledge and community participation – used to make decisions about which WASH service delivery models (SDMs) will be climate resilient, socially inclusive and suited to the local context.
This study provided regionally contextualised evidence about the kinds of processes, tools, and systems that could be explored within different urban contexts in Fiji, Vanuatu, and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Semi-quantitative household surveys and qualitative social research activities were conducted to understand existing WASH services and preferences, urban planning approaches, and the existing political economy in terms of the provision of urban WASH. Alongside these approaches, the project team sought to synthesise diverse datasets, including open-sourced, remotely sensed spatial data, participatory GIS mapping information, and water quality monitoring datasets, to form an overall picture of the hazards on a local and regional level. In that way, a strengths-based approach was used to see what was working and what needed to change to improve the resilience of systems.
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
Residents of the informal settlements in Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea will benefit from this research project. Key findings of the research indicated that there is some progress being made in Melanesian urban informal settlements with respect to formalisation and upgrading: Fiji is currently formalising 46 settlements across the country including service provision, Solomon Water has connected over 2,800 households in settlements to piped water in the last year, Papua New Guinea’s new Port Moresby Urban Development Plan describes their ongoing settlement upgrade process, and Vanuatu’s urban wastewater taskforce is considering sanitation in urban settlements. Notwithstanding progress, WASH services remain very unevenly distributed across Melanesian urban centres, particularly in urban informal settlements.
Outcomes to Date
This research project partnered closely with stakeholders from national and town planning departments, WASH departments and water utilities, as well as learning from the experiences of settlement residents. Recommendations were codeveloped for integrated and collaborative planning processes for climate-resilient WASH in marginalised urban environments. Findings from this research highlights the perspectives and voices of the residents of informal settlements in urban Melanesia which can broaden the perspectives of urban planning managers, increase the inclusiveness of WASH planning and contribute to an improved disaster and shock resilience.
Project Significance
Melanesia is rapidly urbanising and in the absence of, or where limited supply of affordable housing exists, much of this urban growth will occur in informal settlements. Informal settlements are defined by the United Nations as lacking secure land or housing tenure, generally non-compliant with planning and land use regulations, often on marginal or hazardous land, and lacking access to infrastructure and services.
Past research, including by IWC, has indicated that access to WASH services in urban and peri-urban informal settlements across Melanesia is broadly inadequate. In addition, there is little evidence to suggest that WASH services that do exist for urban and peri-urban informal settlements are future-proof – they are not planned with resilience to shocks and change in mind, such as climate change or the needs of changing populations within water catchments.