1 A balanced approach towards ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ components of projects should be adopted

Providing a reliable supply of water for domestic or agricultural purposes requires careful attention to ‘hardware’, suitably balanced by attention to ‘software’ aspects. Technological innovation and adaptation are integral to many of the water-saving measures, service extensions and system improvements urgently required. Technical issues largely determine the costs of a given water-related project, and thus remain of paramount importance.

The present water-related project cycle can, in many settings, still be characterised as ‘build, breakdown, rebuild’. Where the technology deployed is beyond the level of the users’ capacity to maintain, operate or cover costs, the prospects of sustainability of the service are equally beyond reach. Thus the development and use of water resources including waste management infrastructures or irrigation works needs to take technological considerations, as well as local management capacities and community resources into account.

Technology itself needs to be applied within an integrated framework. A project designed to provide a new supply of water should, for example, take into account requirements for disposal, treatment or recycling of run-off and used water. Irrigation works should take into account the potential for soil degradation, return flow problems, mobilization of pollutants from agriculture or other water-related health hazards such as standing water and vectors for water-related diseases.

2 Choice of technology should be governed by considerations of its efficiency, appropriateness, cost, and suitability for local conditions

Technical solutions need to be selected according to criteria which include efficiency, appropriateness, cost and their potential for adaptation to the local environment. The desired approach can be summarised by the term ‘appropriate modern technology ', which captures elements of capacity for operation and maintenance as well as cost-efficiency (see part 3). There have been numerous examples of poor project outcomes due to the selection of costly and inappropriate technology, whose infrastructure and management systems have fallen into disrepair because maintenance was too difficult, or of projects which have resulted in unanticipated environmental damage.

Infrastructure projects have too often imported technology from industrialised countries unsuited to the physical, economic and social conditions in which the system is being applied. While awareness of this issue has grown considerably in recent years, the application of best practices is not yet consistently applied due to lack of resources or capacity linked to insufficient priority being placed on appropriate levels of technology. Professional technical and social advice is useful to guide the choice of technology – whether it is to be ‘high-tech’ or ‘low-tech’. For example the choice of materials should receive careful consideration regarding health security of users, impact on supplying the resources, as well as their environmental suitability. Technical decisions must take into account the social, institutional and economic context within which infrastructure will be maintained. Long-term affordability and sustainability often hinge upon the choice of technology, type of abstraction and methods of delivery. Thus, critical social and economic considerations about the viability of a technology in a given setting should not be ignored. As a general rule, technologies should not burden operators or tie them into costly and unreliable supply strategies; and finally consideration should also be given to the prospects of technology transfer and capacity building at the local level, be it supply or manufacture.

To facilitate cost-effective operation and maintenance, upgrading technologies that permit well-judged and carefully stepped development are desirable, especially in settings where systems, services or specific technologies are being introduced for the first time. These can be developed by incorporating indigenous technologies and local knowledge, scaled-down versions of larger systems or considering alternative choices for water and sanitation services.

To facilitate effective operation and maintenance, availability of spare parts, and appropriate training of operatives including local community workers – men and women- the standardisation of technology being applied is of high importance in order to reduce fragmentation of a strategy. These issues can be addressed within the regulatory framework of water resources management.