Kupang City, one of CRIC’s ten pilot cities, has identified clean water as a priority sector to be addressed to address water scarcity issues through collaboration with the CRIC Project. CRIC spoke with Sara Silva from Ecolise, the European partner responsible for developing tools to improve water governance.

Please introduce yourself and your role in CRIC.

I’m Sara Silva, Project Manager at Ecolise involved in the Climate Resilient and Inclusive Cities Project. Through Ecolise, I help interested city governments move from a linear to a sustainable approach. When it comes to climate change, we promote a systemic approach that relies on inter-topic linkages and encourages inclusivity to achieve climate resilience.

In practical terms, what has Ecolise done and how can it be applied in Kupang?

Ecolise promotes and encourages the adoption of an instrument to help cities transform to sustainable development. We are currently working with cities in Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Spain to facilitate decision-making processes and design joint actions to address a range of issues in cities. In Sao Paolo, Brazil for example, we are engaged in urban greening and in Santorso, Italy, the issue is the transition to sustainable energy. The practices and processes of these cities will also be a reference point for Ecolise to help Kupang address water scarcity.

Can you describe the steps Ecolise will take to develop water management tools in Kupang?

We will be introducing the toolkit I described earlier to Kupang. To make it locally appropriate, we will work with local staff and experts on water scarcity issues who can ensure that the toolkit fits the realities and needs in Kupang. This will require a local team of local government, civil society organizations and experts who will map existing initiatives to address water scarcity, the actors that have been involved in these initiatives, and monitor the impact of the initiatives. Then from this process, we will evaluate whether existing initiatives are being implemented with reference to the available information, whether they have achieved concrete results, whether they also support inclusiveness and contribute to resilience and adaptation and whether they can be replicated. From this process we can gain insight into the appropriate actions we need to design and implement to address water scarcity in Kupang.

How long did it take you to develop this device?

The implementation cycle of the toolkit takes 12 months and municipalities can undertake a second iteration if they so decide.

How can we ensure that the tools we develop address the problems Kupang faces?

The tools developed should be able to create a fundamental change not only in how water scarcity is addressed but also address the challenges in the domains that contribute to the problem of water scarcity. Therefore, civil society needs to be involved in the entire process as early as possible. With an inclusive and systemic decision-making process, we believe we can determine the right actions to help Kupang overcome water scarcity.