Overview
    
Our work is framed by the hypothesis that scale reduces risk. Risks are considered in terms of the intersections between institutional, operational, financial, hydrological and social conditions. Low-cost mobile transmitters developed by the OxWater team provide novel data streams that enable the reconfiguring of rural water insitutions and better informed investments in water infrastructure. 

Research themes:
​
Water institutions 

• Policy and decision-making
• Institutional design
• Financial models

​Sustainable development

• Risk management
• Welfare monitoring and metrics
• Water behaviour

Computational informatics 

• Machine learning
• Condition monitoring
• Mobile technologies

Linked research projects at
Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment 
​

Mobile Payment Systems

This ground-breaking project aims to design a replicable, sustainable and financially-sound rural water supply model to benefit poor people across rural Africa. It builds on earlier OxWater work modelling social preferences which found that rural water users would pre-pay regularly for reliable maintenance services. The project is trialling a novel financial model for water services in rural Africa by building capacity for a new handpump maintenance service company called FundiFix. The company delivers an efficient repair service in return for monthly mobile payments from hand pump users, whilst 'smart handpumps', which transmit pump use data, provide oversight and transparency to investors and regulators involved in rural water service delivery.

Gro for GooD

Gro for GooD is a £1.9 million consortium grant from NERC, ESRC and DFID to develop a novel, interdisciplinary Groundwater Risk Management Tool in Kenya. Gro for GooD outputs will contribute to balancing groundwater risks and opportunities from Africa's convergence of explosive urban growth, irrigated agricultural expansion, industrial pollution, untapped mineral wealth and rural neglect. Gro for GooD will develop and test new technologies and models that respond to the complexity and urgency of groundwater governance challenges across Africa. 

News and reports from the Gro for GooD project can be found on the UPGro consortium website 

Rural Water Sustainability

This project partnership between UNICEF and Oxford builds on the Oxford team's work in piloting a new model that ensures improved reliability and sustainability for community hand pumps providing drinking water to the poorest and most marginalised people.

​The project aims to design and test a scalar and replicable model for the sustainable delivery of rural water services, including a pre-payment system that underpins a business model for long-term, local sustainability. In addition it will measure health and burden impacts related to hand pump functionality and failure events. The project is taking place across ESAR with an operational pilot site is eastern Kenya.

​​
​Selected publications

Papers

• Koehler, J., Rayner, S., Katuva, J., Thomson, P. and Hope, R. (2018) A cultural theory of drinking water risks, values and institutional change. Global Environmental Change, 50: 268-277.
• Koehler, J. (2018) Exploring policy perceptions and responsibility of devolved decision-making for water service delivery in Kenya’s 47 county governments. Geoforum, 92: 68-80.
• Foster, T., Willetts, J., Lane, M., Thomson, P., Katuva, J. and Hope, R. (2018). Risk factors associated with rural water supply failure: A 30-year retrospective study of handpumps on the south coast of Kenya. Science of The Total Environment, 626, pp.156-164.
• Colchester, F., Marais, H., Thomson, P., Hope, R. and Clifton, D. (2017). Accidental infrastructure for groundwater monitoring in Africa. Environmental Modelling & Software, 91, pp.241-250.
• Foster, T. and Hope, R. (2017). Evaluating waterpoint sustainability and access implications of revenue collection approaches in rural Kenya. Water Resources Research.
• Foster, T. and Hope, R. (2016) A multi-decadal and social-ecological systems analysis of community waterpoint payment behaviours in rural Kenya. Journal of Rural Studies, 47(A): 85-96.
• Koehler, J., Thomson, P. and Hope, R. (2016) Mobilizing payments for water service sustainability. In, Broken Pumps and Promises: Incentivizing Impact in Environmental Health. Springer International Publishing. pp. 57-76. ISBN: 978-3-319-28641-9.
• Koehler, J., Thomson, P. and Hope, R. (2015) Pump-priming payments for sustainable water services in rural Africa. World Development, 74: 397-411.
• Hope, R. (2015) Is community water management the community’s choice? Implications for water and development policy in Africa. Water Policy, 17(4): 664-678.
• Thomson, P., Hope, R.A. and Foster, T. (2012) GSM-enabled remote monitoring of rural handpumps: A proof of concept study. Journal of Hydroinformatics, 14(4): 829-839.

Reports

• Financial Sustainability for Universal Rural Water Services, August 2015, Oxford/RFL/UNICEF.
• Insuring against Rural Water Risk - Evidence from Kwale, Kenya, August 2015, Tim Foster, Rob Hope and Patrick Thomson
• From Rights to Results in Rural Water Services - Evidence from Kyuso, Kenya, March 2014, Dr Rob Hope, Patrick Thomson, Johanna Koehler, Dr Tim Foster and Mike Thomas.

​View more related publications on the Smith School website