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COURSE OUTLINE
Urban Water Policy and Governance
PP 5257

Lecturers
Prof Asit K. Biswas, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy and Co-Founder, World Water Council.
Dr Cecilia Tortajada, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Past President, International Water Resources Association.

Pre-requisites
None necessary but willingness to work hard and think independently and logically from first principles are essential requirements.

Essential information
The course requires intense interactions, and thus the maximum number of students that could participate will be around 15 so that each student can receive appropriate personal attention.

Contact information
Prof Biswas and Dr Tortajada are available for discussion, Mondays to Fridays. In the case of Prof. Biswas, no appointment is necessary. Just walk in.

Prof Biswas: sppasitk@nus.edu.sg
Dr. Tortajada: cecilia.tortajada@nus.edu.sg

Term paper
Each student will be expected to write a term paper for the course. The topic could be selected jointly by the student concerned and Prof Biswas. The term paper length could be anywhere between 20 to 30 pages, at 1½-spaced printing. The deadline for submission will be intimated later.

Opinion piece
Each student is expected to prepare an opinion piece for a newspaper or blog based on the homework carried out. Advice as to how to structure and publish a piece will be given.
Assessment

Class participation and involvement, including
assignments and presentations50 %
Term paper(20 to 40 pages)40%
Op-ed and blog10%

Course outline
At present over half of the global population lives in urban areas. Urbanization is expected to increase in the coming years. By 2050, it is estimated that over two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities. Nearly 90% of the increase in population is expected to occur in only two continents, Asia and Africa. This means nearly 1.5 million will be moving to urban areas, per week, till 2050.

Urbanization has generally contributed to economic growth and an expanding middle class. Information and communication revolution has meant the aspirations of the people for an increased standard of living and quality of life are increasing steadily. Growing urbanization naturally leads to amplified needs for all types of urban infrastructure, including for water and wastewater management. However, poor governance policies of local governments, inefficient institutions, and lack of adequate funds for new infrastructure and proper operation and maintenance of all types of infrastructure are some of the constraints that are facing all urban centres.

For cities to function properly, two resources are absolutely critical: energy and water. There are many sources of energy, coal, oil, natural gas and electricity which can be generated in many ways. There is a well-established global market for energy. In contrast, there is no market in water. Most cities subsidize or provide free water. Consequently, timely investments for urban water and wastewater management are conspicuous by its absence in nearly all urban centres.

Decades of mismanagement have meant that in overwhelming number cities in developing world people receive 2–4 hours of water each day, and quality of water is not fit to drink. Lack of proper wastewater management has meant that all water bodies in and around urban centres are now heavily contaminated. Thus, at one hand urban water demands for all purposes are steadily increasing. On the other hand, existing water sources are becoming increasingly polluted and thus curtailing their use for many different uses. Consequently, developing world is now facing a perfect storm in terms of supplying good quality water of appropriate quantity for domestic, industrial and commercial demands of cities.
Ensuring urban water security, in terms of both quantity and quality, is increasingly becoming a critical issue in terms of economic development and quality of life in all countries. Unless urban water policy of a country is properly formulated, all other important policies in areas like energy, agriculture, industrial and commercial activities, health and environment will continue to be sub-optimal and sometimes even detrimental. Water directly affects development in most other sectors. Thus, unless existing water and governance policies are significantly improved, the world will most likely face a water crisis, the extent and magnitude of which no other earlier generation have encountered. This would have very significant impacts on the standard of quality of life all over the world.

Yet, with the current knowledge, experience and technology, there is absolutely no reason as to why the current and future urban water problems of any country cannot be solved cost-effectively. The focus of the course will be to review and analyze the critical components that would constitute good urban water policies and governance practices with a view to assess their strengths, weaknesses and constraints. The objective will be how to improve urban water policies and governance practices so as to meet long-term socioeconomic and environmental needs of all countries.

Formulation of urban water, sanitation and wastewater management policies and their implementation in the real world is an art, and not a science, with continuous trade offs and compromises between technical, economic, social, political and environmental factors, interests of institutions and various stakeholders, and many other associated factors. These complex and interrelated issues, which often change with time, will be discussed within the context of a developmental framework. Equally, it is important that formulators and implementors of urban water policies should be good communicators. The course will thus give special emphasis to substantially improve the written and verbal communication capacities of the students.

At the end of the course, it is expected that the students will be able to start thinking independently and logically on any urban water-related development issues, by first defining the problem and its boundary conditions, and then thinking through them logically to formulate appropriate policies and governance practices that are implementable. In the area of urban water management, like in most other sectors, there is simply no one single policy or governance practice that will suit all countries, or even parts of the same country. A main objective of the course will be how to develop appropriate “business unusual” practices which could directly solve specific urban water problems in specific countries or regions, at any specific period of time.
CLASS 1
Introduction to the course, its objectives and expectations. Urban water and wastewater management and their roles of water in social and economic development, poverty alleviation and environmental conservation.
Discussion on backgrounds of students and their interests on water-related issues.

Class readings and discussions:

Biswas, A. K. (2007) Asian Water Development Outlook, ADB and Asia-Pacific Water Forum, https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/27971/awdo.pdf

CLASS 2

Major issues of urban water and wastewater management, Millennium Development Goals; Sustainable Development Goals.
Presentations and discussions of class assignment.

Class readings and discussions:

Department of Water Resources, About urban water management, Home page, http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/uwmp2015.cfm and 2015 Urban water management plans, http://www.water.ca.gov/urbanwatermanagement/uwmp2015.cfm
Sustainable Development Goals: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

CLASS 3

Drivers of urban water and wastewater management polices (continuation). Introduction to water governance.
Presentations and discussions of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue. Read Introduction and Chapter 1.2 on “Water impacts on energy security and reliability” by Mike Hightower: http://inweh.unu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Water-Security-Global-Crisis.pdf
See NASA Grace sees groundwater losses around the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu4cBM4m5gU

CLASS 4

Water demand management, water pricing and cost recovery, water conservation, virtual water, water footprints.
Presentations and discussions of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

Our Water Footprint/Breakthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T_n0oi9YdY
Olivia Jensen, 2016, Public-private partnerships for water in Asia: a review of two decades of experience, International Journal of Water Resources Development 33(1):4-30.

CLASS 5

Urban water and wastewater policies, climate change, environment and development: their interrelationships and interlinkages.
Presentations and discussions of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014, Climate Change 2014, Synthesis Report. Summary for Policymakers, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf
Herring SC, Hoerling, MP, Peterson, TC and Stott, PA, 2014, Explaining extreme events of 2015 from a climate perspective, Special supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 97(12), December 2016. Read Introduction and chapter 17 on Chennai and Summary and broader context, http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-ExplainingExtremeEvents2015.1

CLASS 6

Presentation by Chief Executive of PUB, on Singapore’s urban water and wastewater management.
Questions and answers.

Class readings and discussions:

PUB Corporate Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KElvEcKiQ
Cecilia Tortajada, Yugal K. Joshi and Asit K. Biswas, 2013, The Singapore Water Story, Routledge, London, read chapters 1 and 2.

CLASS 7

Water as a human right: background and effectiveness.
Water policy formulation with emphasis on issues that should be considered, and processes to be followed.
Presentations and discussion of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

Safe drinking water as a human right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So-2EcQUwxQ
Asit K. Biswas, Eglal Rached and Cecilia Tortajada, 2008, Water as a human right for the Middle East and North Africa, Routledge, New York, read chapters 1 and 3: https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/water-human-right-middle-east-and-north-africa

CLASS 8

Urban water management in cities in a changing environment: Examples and case studies.
Presentations and discussions of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

Water sensitive cities, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, https://watersensitivecities.org.au/
Yus Budiyono, Jeroen Aerts, JanJaap Brinkman, Muh Aris Marfai and Philip Ward, 2015, Flood risk assessment for delta mega-cities: a case study of Jakarta, Natural Hazards 75:389-413.

CLASS 9

Example of successful urban water management: case studies of Phnom Penh and Manila.

Class readings and discussions:

Asit K. Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada, 2010, Water Supply of Phnom Penh: An Example of Good Governance, International Journal of Water Resources Development, Volume 26, Issue 2, pages 157–172.

CLASS 10

Industrial water use in urban centres.

Class readings and discussions:

World Resources Institute, Global Shale Gas Development, http://www.wri.org/publication/global-shale-gas-development-water-availability-business-risks

CLASS 11

Roles and responsibilities of governments, private sector, civil society and financial institutions: policies, politics and governance-related issues.
Presentations and discussions of class assignments.

Class readings and discussions:

Lester M.Salamon, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, and Associates, 2004, Global Civil Society. Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector, Vol. 2, Kumarian Press, CT, read Chapter 1, plus another one you choose: http://ccss.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/08/Global_Civil_Soiciety_2_TOC.pdf
CEO Water Mandate, UN Global Compact: http://ceowatermandate.org/policyengagement/understanding-water-policy/

Read the views of the United Nations Development Programme on Private Sector: http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/funding/partners/private_sector.html

Note
NUS and the LKY School regard academic integrity as a very important value. To avoid giving the impression that you are passing off other people’s work as your own, you will need to acknowledge conscientiously the sources of information, ideas, and arguments used in any of your assignments. In order to understand what counts as plagiarism and why it is wrong, students at the LKY School had taken the NUS online module on Academic Culture during the Orientation Programme and formally acknowledged that they had understood the contents. Students who would like an introduction to the different referencing styles can refer to the following website, among others: https://www.citethisforme.com/guides. You will be required to submit all written assignments that are uploaded on IVLE for plagiarism check.