Water and Development: Good Governance after Neoliberalism was launched at the high profile World Social Science Forum in Durban recently by the Consortium for Research on Poverty (CROP). CROP are co-publishers along with Zed Books.
Edited by Ronaldo Munck, Narathius Asingwire, Honor Fagan and Consolata Kabonesa, the result is essential reading both for students of development and the environment and for NGOs and policy-makers seeking a robust and transformational approach to water and development. Prof. Honor Fagan is from the Sociology Department and the book includes a chapter from Dr. Richard Asaba, the Sociology Department's first Joint Doctorate graduate.
Water has always been a crucial catalyst for human development. In Africa, competition among different sectors for this scarce resource remains a critcial challenge to water managers and decision-makers.
Water and Development examines a range of issues, from governance to solar distillation, from gender to water pumps, using a range of research methods, from participant observation to GIS and SPSS data analysis. Throughout, however, there is the unifying thread of developing a participatory and sustainable approach to water which recognises it as an essential public necessity.