Applying New Institutional Economics to the Mozambican water and sanitation sector

by Noud
I wrote my Industrial Ecology thesis as part of the this project, wherein I focussed on the (informal) institutions that govern the relations between the actors present in Maputo’s sanitation sector. My research found its origin in the school of New Institutional Economics (NIE), which is an economic perspective that attempts to extend economics by focusing on the institutions, i.e. the social and legal norms and rules, that underlie economic activity and with analysis beyond earlier institutional economics and neoclassical economics. NIE assumes that individuals are rational and that they seek to maximise their preferences, but that they also have cognitive limitations, lack complete information and have difficulties monitoring and enforcing agreements. Continue reading

Maputo 2050: water demand and availability for a growing population and economy

by André

You might have understood by now that I really enjoy playing with data, particularly use publicly available data to characterize decision making processes in the water and sanitation sector in Mozambique. That’s exactly what I did for my previous article. This time around I am looking at water demand for the city of Maputo until 2050 and compare that to the existing and projected availability. Continue reading

Results of the household survey – a comic strip

by Lena

In the past few months we were quite busy finalizing the technical report discussing the household survey that we did together with WSP at the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015. I wrote about it here and here and you can now grab a copy of the final report here. By the way, this work was the basis our WEDC paper and for my MSc thesis – very productive! Continue reading

Defenses

by André

In the last few months we had three MSc defenses: Iana went first, the 19th of September, followed by Jay-el on the 23rd. More recently (30th of November) was the time for Nessia‘s MSc defense. They all did really well and you can grab a copy of the theses here.

Then, on the 24th of November both Celma and Noor defended their research proposals, with Adriano doing the same on the 29th. The three of them got a GO.

Congratulations everybody!

Updated publication list

by André

I have just updated our publication list, both the BSc and the MSc theses. As before, if you wish to receive a copy just send me an email (a.marquesarsenio@tudelft.nl).

Attending the Workshop on “Water Equity and Resilience in Southern Africa”

by Adriano Biza

Through an invitation of Professor Leila Harris, on behalf of the International Waters Research and Training Network I had the opportunity of participating in a “Workshop on Water Equity and Resilience in Southern Africa”, which was held between 24th and 26th August 2016, at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Continue reading

Three day workshop in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)

by André and Noor

On the last week of January 2016 André, Noor and Celma attended an NWO workshop in Ho Hi Minh City, Vietnam. The meeting brought together, for the first time, researchers and PhD candidates involved in the Urbanizing Deltas of the World-I (UDW-I) call, and created an open forum for discussion on the content and on research uptake and stakeholder engagement. Unfortunately not everybody could join, due to visa issues, and that was also the case of our colleague Joaquim. Continue reading

Studying and living in the Netherlands – first impressions

by Joaquim Nhampoca

This is a kind of narrative of a quite long process of my coming to the Netherlands for my project. The main purpose is to share with everyone about my PhD programme and obviously my stay in Delft. To make it clear I will start by the application for the PhD position, arrival and accommodation, studying at UNESCO-IHE, and finally living in Delft. Continue reading

Water reuse for construction in Maputo (in Portuguese)

by Henrique Miotelli

É a minha primeira viagem fora do Brasil, e a minha primeira vez em Maputo. Cheguei na cidade no dia 13 de agosto de 2015, e ficarei até o dia 22 de dezembro de 2015. Minha vinda tem como objetivo realizar meu trabalho de conclusão de curso em Engenharia Sanitária e Ambiental, sendo um intercâmbio entre a Universidade do Oeste de Santa Catarina e a Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. Em conversa com meus supervisores Noor Jehan Gulamussem e Nelson Pedro Matsinhe, definiu-se o tema do trabalho buscar os potenciais reutilizadores de água residual tratada, e a viabilidade da aplicação na produção de blocos de concreto na cidade de Maputo. Continue reading

First group meeting

by André

We organized our first project meeting since the appointment of the four PhD candidates. The two-day meeting took place in Delft on the last week of September and everybody was presented, the PhD candidates and their supervisors and promotors; we were very happy to host Maria Rusca traveling from the UK and Nelson Matsinhe and Sandra Manuel from Mozambique. We would also like to thank Michel Riemersma for taking to time to be present during the first day and presenting the ideas that RoyalHaskoningDHV has for future developments in Maputo. Continue reading