This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Access to clean drinking water is a basic human need, yet many residents struggle to obtain it. In Mumbai, India, one of the world's largest and most populous cities, hundreds of informal settlements housing millions of residents face barriers to securing government-provided water connections.
New research from Georgia Tech found that neither administrative assistance nor political advocacy alone was enough to overcome those obstacles. But together, the two bottom-up approaches produced dramatic results. Over five years, researchers tracked nearly 7,000 households across 154 Mumbai settlements to determine which strategies most effectively helped residents secure water connections.
They found that helping residents navigate the application process—while also organizing community advocacy—increased official water connections by 45% compared with households that received no assistance. "There have been many studies looking at just using administrative assistance to help communities get water access," said Anjali Thomas, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, director of the Global Development Program, and co-lead author of the study. "But combining this with community organizing, which helped people also exert their voice, was unique to our study." Thomas and collaborator Nikhar Gaikwad, an assistant professor at Columbia University, published the findings in the American Journal of Political Science.
The researchers first examined why so few residents applied for water connections. Residents were often unaware that recent policy changes had made them eligible for water connections and didn't bother applying. The municipal corporation also accepted only online applications, and many residents didn't have access to computers.
Additionally, applications required onerous documentation, including tenant or land titles, plumbers' approvals and other proof-of-eligibility deeds. To address these barriers, the research team worked with an extensive team of nongovernmental organization workers to help residents gather required documents, complete applications and navigate bureaucratic follow-up requests. The second intervention focused on community advocacy.
Researchers helped residents organize through WhatsApp groups, petitions, public awareness campaigns and facilitated group visits to bureaucrats' and elected officials' offices to press for water access. "Our community advocacy intervention helped citizens convey their collective water access demands to elected politicians," said Gaikwad. "Local elected politicians are important actors because they help bureaucrats understand citizen needs, prioritize competing demands, and coordinate complex interagency work." The study's most important finding was that neither intervention was effective on its own.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
