Participatory approach for water security: A methodological inquest based on stakeholders' perspectives, Nallur DS division

Abstract

This study attempts to discuss the methodological review on the applications of participatory approach in the project on water security in Northern Province. The thought on water security appeared as a new perspective to treat the water related matters in a holistic view instead of the themes such as water issue, water pollution, and water management in the beginning of 1990. Participatory approach is widely applied in the health and social science fields to achieve real outcome in their research and project activities. This project on water security is also based on participatory action research. This study explores on what are the benefits of using participatory approach in this project and in which ways it helps to direct the future plans of the project. The world café method was used to organize the meetings with various participantsட of research area at one place in various times. The types of participants were: Officials from the Government sector, relevant non-state actors, trade people, activists, media persons, educators, researchers, school students and teachers and typology of participants are not confined to these categories. The organized meetings with the stakeholders belong to the Nallur DS Division opened a platform to discuss on various aspects of water security in Northern Province based on their personal and professional experiences. The discussion themes of meetings enlarge the understanding of the nature of water security in the region and extend what kind of actions or plan regarding regional water security should be formed and implemented in the future. The emerged key strategies were handling salinity, looking into water level in water bodies, coordination between authorities and activities, and lack of awareness among the communities on the potential water issues. This meeting gave an opportunity to make awareness of water and water security among the different stakeholders. The spectrum of the respondents should be more inclusive and findings could be utilized for formulating a provincial-level drinking water policy in the future.