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

Webinars on Integrated Urban Water Management

by André

As I mentioned in our last post we are organizing a series of webinars covering the various aspects of the “Integrated Urban Water Management “. The webinars are part of a project in partnership between AQUASHARE and TU Delft, funded by NWO‘s program on Urbanizing Deltas of the World. In this new post I am sharing detailed information about the first three events, starting from September 2020. Continue reading

New project: Supporting Integrated Urban Water approaches for urbanizing Maputo through capacity building and advocacy activities

by André

We are very happy to inform you that we have a new capacity building and advocacy project together with AQUASHARE. Read all below. 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

Voting for toilets and healthy environment in Maputo City

by Adriano

The electoral season in Mozambique is open. On October 10th we are going to have the fifth municipal elections in the country. This election will decide who are the new decision– makers and solvers of the various problems that affect the 53 large and small cities and towns of Mozambique. The debates held so far in the run up to the elections are more directed to conventional politics: the transfers of members from one party to another, the exclusion by the National Election Commission of three candidates from the opposition side, the anecdotes about temporary adversarial linkages that weave behind the scenes of parties. Continue reading

IHE Delft interview with Natalia

by André

Natalia, who we featured a few weeks back, was recently interviewed by IHE Delft and told them all about her life as a PhD and about her work in Maputo. Don’t miss it! Continue reading

Movie report from Laura

By André

Just like last year, Maputo is currently undergoing a serious drought and major water restrictions throughout the city. What if you would use treated wastewater instead of normal tap water to cool the future power plant in Maputo? That’s exactly what Laura tried to investigate and instead of the typical blog posts she opted for a short movie to tell you all about it. Here it is:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/eDndf6JXkEo[/youtube]

We all hope you like it! Note: if you have troubles with the embedded video, you can find it here.

Updated publication list

by André

This update was long due. I’ve just added Jesper‘s (MSc), Nessia‘s (MSc), Stijn‘s (BSc) and Jelle‘s (BSc) thesis to the website. I’ve also added Noor‘s recent IWA’s poster. As always, if you wish to receive a copy of any of these documents, please send me an email.

My thoughts on the first National Conference on Desalination

by André

Last week (25/04/2017) the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the National Directorate of Water Supply and Sanitation (DNAAS) organized the first national conference on desalination in Mozambique. The high-profile event took place at DNAAS, in Maputo, and was led by the National Director, Mr. Nilton Trindade. The morning was devoted to offer a general view of the situation regarding water resources in Mozambique, with desalination being presented as a potential solution; whereas in the afternoon four different companies pitched their technological offers for desalination and gave examples of previous projects throughout the world. I am now taking this opportunity to share some thoughts about the conference in general and about desalination in particular. Continue reading

Cholera outbreak in Maputo: the impact of insufficient sanitation services and limited access to drinking water

by André

By now you might have read that there’s an ongoing cholera outbreak in Maputo and in a couple other cities and regions in Mozambique – four in total. Continue reading