Periurban

Water Security in Peri-urban South Asia: Adapting to Climate Change & Urbanisation

Overview and Objectives

The project sought to understand the implications for residents in four peri-urban locations of three south Asian countries in the overall context of climate change. This action-research project shall serve as a basis for capacity-building at the local level to address these concerns and bring in stakeholders to discuss and deliberate the issues for policy change in favour of the vulnerable communities. A series of interactions is proposed to bring forth the nuances of this uneven development process in South Asia. The project is coordinated by South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies and executed in association with the consortium members and a team of researchers and experts from South Asia. In addition, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India shall be involved as knowledge partner for the execution of the project. This action-research project endeavours to bring in peri-urban water resource dynamics in the wake of climate change at the forefront of research, action and policy agenda at the South Asia level.

Specific objectives:

To understand decreased water availability, competition and conflict as a result of urbanisation and to draw out the implications of this for vulnerability and variability in the context of climate change,

To examine how different social groups, women and men, respond and adapt to increased water stress – as shaped by a mix of technology and institutions - and what strategies they employ to cope with or adapt to the situation;

To assess and evaluate the cost effectiveness of technical and institutional alternatives that facilitate adaptation and/or build resilience in communities at risk to climate change; and

To identify avenues for collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders who are engaged at the peri-urban interface, and to find out the institutional gap in adequately addressing the situation.

The Research Design and Methodology
This study shall be carried out over a three year time frame in selected peri-urban locations in South Asia and is designed as a collaborative action research project involving partners from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. A mix of both qualitative and quantitative research techniques shall be used in the study depending upon specific issues being investigated. This will include ethnographic research, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and Participatory Rural Assessment methodologies. The rationale behind a mix of methodologies is to enable the generation of rich data as also to facilitate triangulation, apart from enabling the participation of the members of the study team in the design and execution of the research. A study of the secondary data and other relevant documents related to urbanisation, peri-urban residents, climate change phenomena and trends in the availability of water will be undertaken for each country and the proposed research sites to compile relevant information. This will generate a clear understanding of the urban growth pattern and climate change impacts, which will be useful to the main action research and serve as a basis for further research.

Study Area	Peri-Urban South Asia, India, Bangladesh and Nepal
Duration	June 2010 to June 2013
Funder	International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada

Water Security in Peri-urban South Asia: Adapting to Climate Change & Urbanisation

Overview and Objectives

Project Details

Project Team

Bangladesh

India

Nepal

Resources

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