Adapting Life-Cycle Thinking Tools to Evaluate Project Sustainability in International Water and Sanitation Development Work

Abstract

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have called issues of water and sanitation to the forefront of international development efforts. Engineers and other development workers are answering this call in increasing numbers. In order to achieve these goals it is necessary to overcome the historically low sustainability rates of development projects. This paper presents a logical framework for identifying and analyzing the factors that affect sustainable development of water and sanitation projects. It identifies five sustainability factors that are common in development literature and the policies of international aid organizations:(1) sociocultural respect, (2) community participation, (3) political cohesion, (4) economic sustainability, and (5) environmental sustainability. A life-cycle thinking approach is used to assess how project sustainability can be improved throughout the project life. Five life stages are identified to represent the life of a development project: (1) needs assessment, (2) conceptual designs and feasibility, (3) design and action planning, (4) implementation, and (5) operation and maintenance. Using the defined sustainability factors and life-cycle stages, an assessment matrix is developed. A series of guidelines for each matrix element are given for scoring the sustainability of a project. The guidelines are derived from best practice approaches to effective international development. The proposed sustainability matrix can be used as a guide for project planning or as an evaluation system to identify strengths and weaknesses in project approaches.

Sustainability of Water Safety Plans Developed in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…In order to evaluate and sustain water and sanitation supplies in developing countries, the international literature offers some proposals such as (i) create a "sustainability chain", consisting of motivation, maintenance, cost recovery and continuing support elements [9]; (ii) divide water and sanitation projects into sequential steps [10]; (iii) base the project on three sustainability components: Effective community demand, local financing and cost recovery, dynamic operation and maintenance [11].…”

Integrating Developed and Developing World Knowledge into Global Discussions and Strategies for Sustainability. 1. Science and Technology

“…This is especially important as the world's expanding population is forced to innovate sustainable technological, economic, and societal solutions for critical areas such as material usage, water supply, food production, and energy generation. Development of a common framework to allow decision makers to evaluate mutually beneficial types of technology will require that scientists and engineers not only consider the value of community-based solutions and culturally appropriate technology but also understand how to apply the principles of green engineering (13) and life cycle thinking to sustainable development (59). It is our hope that this manuscript and its companion (8) …”

Methodological Approach for the Sustainability Assessment of Development Cooperation Projects for Built Innovations Based on the SDGs and Life Cycle Thinking

“…Such a life cycle sustainability assessment consists of the LCA, the life cycle costing (LCC) which focuses on the economic dimension and the social life cycle assessment (SLCA) (and its sub-method life cycle working environment (LCWE)) which deals with the social impact of a product [40,41]. However, there are drawbacks that make an application in the development sector not feasible; i.e., the SLCA is still being developed and discussed and there is no agreement on the social impact categories [40], while the LCC focuses on costs of products or product systems and therefore omits information relevant for development assistance such as poverty or employment [25]. As a consequence, the well-recognized LCA is used for the environmental (and some social) impact assessment whereas an indicator-based approach is being used for the analysis of the social and economic impacts.…”

“…cycle thinking is applied which is seldom the case [25]. Also evaluations remain largely confined to observations of effects in the use phase of the products.…”