According to the United Nations, in 2018 an estimated four billion people, or 55 percent of the global population, live in urban areas. This proportion is expected to increase to 60 percent by 2050. Much of this growth occurs through the expansion of metropolitan areas, secondary cities, and peri-urban areas, especially in unplanned, informal settlements that lack basic WASH services. Access to WASH services underpins the well-being, household assets, and livelihoods of vulnerable urban communities. Creating sustainable improvements in urban water and sanitation services requires a holistic approach that addresses sector governance, finance, service provider performance, and water resources management (WRM).
Benefits
- Enhancing uptake of effective urban WASH approaches and tools
- Using evidence-based research to inform urban WASH and WRM investments
- Providing technical support for USAID Mission WASH or WRM programming
Through the Urban Resilience by Building Partnerships and Applying New evidence in WASH (URBAN WASH), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Tetra Tech’s water and infrastructure experts are leading efforts to understand key challenges to sustainable and resilient WASH systems and services in urban and peri-urban areas. Our teams support high-impact interventions through collaboration with researchers, the private sector, civil society groups, government bodies, and multilateral institutions. URBAN WASH uses state-of-the-art and contextually appropriate implementation research methodologies to generate high-quality evidence across three foundational focus areas:
- Supporting municipal WASH and WRM policies and regulations
- Developing approaches for sustainable small and informal WASH services provision
- Improving source water protection and diversification
URBAN WASH also supports USAID Missions with on-demand technical assistance, including support to conduct research, evaluations, assessments, and strategic planning that addresses increasingly urgent climate change adaptation in urban settings. Through a consortium led by Tetra Tech, USAID Missions have access to highly qualified experts from the Aquaya Institute, FSG, Iris Group, SEGURA Consulting, Stockholm Environment Institute, and WaterAid.
Tetra Tech will address local gender and inclusion concerns and climate change aspects by facilitating participation of women and marginalized groups in research activities and designing learning products and dissemination activities accessible to diverse stakeholders.