Gobacit
Governance, Citizenship, Water Management and Environmental Health
in Developing Countries
This research network is developing work focusing on the conditions and requirements for implementing and maintaining good governance in the integrated management of water and in the production and provision of safe water and adequate sanitation services, with particular focus on the impact of these activities on public health in urban and rural areas.
We explore the interrelations between these activities taking the basin as a complex system where bio-physical-chemical, techno-infrastructural, economic, socio-political, and cultural processes are inextricably interwoven.
Overall objectives:
- Achieving a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the implementation of “good governance” principles in the rational management of water in relation to the production and provision of safe water and adequate sanitation services and public health
- Improving our existing knowledge about the interactions between integrated water management, ecosystem sustainability, the provision of safe water and adequate sanitation services, and environmental health with particular emphasis on their impact on public health
- Enhancing the chances of practical achievements at the local level in order to tackle the inequalities affecting the access to adequate essential water services and public health care by the most disadvantaged sectors of the population, especially women and children