Centre for Water and Development
Overview
The Centre for Water and Development provides a forum for interdisciplinary and comparative research relating to water governance and resource management across the School as well as externally.
The Group engages in:
- Research: collaborative, interdisciplinary research on water resources and development within SOAS and with UK, European and global partners.
- Education: strengthen and expand water resources related education at SOAS, including distance learning.
- Partnerships and capacity building: undertake joint projects with academic and NGO partners in Africa, Asia and Europe, and develop proposals in response to expressed needs of practitioners/water professionals.
- Public debate: enhance informed, critical debate on water resources and development.
The Centre for Water and Development (CWD) is engaged in multiple strands of work: In the UK, members have been engaged in interdisciplinary research on the water and sewerage sector in England and Wales for over a decade. Initially under the EU-funded FESSUD project, research focused on the financialisation of water in England, uncovering the complex financial structures of some of the water companies. Subsequent research explored the material cultures that sustain the financialised structures of the English water system.
We have also written about the regulation of financialised infrastructure in England. We have an interdisciplinary approach, combining economics and anthropology in our study of London’s Thames Tideway ‘Super Sewer’. CWD’s written evidence has been cited in UK government enquiries, by the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
In October 2024 the UK government launched an independent commission to review the English and Welsh water systems. However the scope is limited in terms of the remit, which focuses just on improving regulation, and the participation which offers little opportunity for public involvement. SOAS is working with a team of academics and activists to carry out an alternative People’s Commission on Water.
The aim is to broaden the scope of the government's commission, holding public meetings in local venues across England. The panel will take evidence from sector experts and water users and draw on international experience to devise policy options for a sustainable, equitable and effective water system.
CWD currently co-hosts the European Research Council (ERC) project Addressing the Multi-scalar Dimensions of Sectoral Water Conflicts: Lessons from South Asia (WATCON), which has received funding from UKRI under the UKRI Frontier Research grants scheme.
Research
The Centre for Water and Development undertakes research in various areas of environmental law of contemporary relevance. The centre's research focuses in particular on topics of relevance to the South and to North-South relations.
