CHAPTER 4
In-Depth Analysis of Water Management Challenges in Selected Cities City-specific circumstances will be critical in assessing whether and how an integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach would be relevant. A number of cities worldwide have adopted IUWM approaches, in Latin America in particular—for example, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo, Brazil; Cali, Medellin, and Bogotá, Colombia; and Monterey, Mexico (SWITCH, 2011). But it is not clear if all cities would benefit from such an approach. This study undertook intensive case studies of three African cities to identify potential IUWM strategies that would help public authorities deal with the challenges of water management. Based on a call for potentially interested cities among World Bank task team leaders, three cities were selected as case studies to assess the benefits that IUWM might provide: Nairobi (Kenya) and Arua and Mbale (Uganda), complemented by a desk review in Douala (Cameroon). The selected cities include both medium- and large-size cities with different administrative traditions, and each has different challenges. Deliberately, the chosen cities have water management projects in an early phase (just before or just after World Bank approval), and the analysis under this economic and sector work could move into a practical implementation phase if there was interest from the city client. As will be described, city authorities expressed interest in concrete follow-up in each of the three cities selected as case studies. 83