TRUST: Drinking Water Supply in Prospering Water Shortage Regions

Climate change is exacerbating water shortage, especially in regions that are already struggling with water scarcity. At the same time, the demand for clean drinking water, irrigation water for agriculture and industrial water is increasing all over the world. Using the example of the Río Lurín water catchment area in the region of Lima, Peru, experts from various disciplines are collaborating in the joint project TRUST to develop planning tools as well as water and wastewater disposal concepts primarily for drinking water supply. ZIRIUS coordinates the project with the overall objective of contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals. 

New participation procedure

In order to better understand the system of the Peruvian water sector and to consider potential conflicts between different water users at an early stage, ZIRIUS carries out a conflict field analysis. Together with a German project partner context-sensitive participation procedures are developed which can serve for the negotiation of diverging interests of different stakeholders. A new combination of individual interview techniques and systemic analysis methods such as CIB (Cross-Impact Balance analysis) takes into account the values and preferences of local water users in the concept development. 

Decentralised water concepts

With the aim of using the available limited water resources as efficiently as possible, project partners from science and practice are developing optimised overall water management concepts. These can consist of a system of decentralised and centralised systems or modules and serve primarily to ensure the supply of drinking water, but should also satisfy the water needs of competing sectors. Supported by participatory processes, the concepts are adjusted with local partners. The development of a software-based decision support system (DSS) will also support local water supply companies to identify areas of high risk for water pollution. A database for all hydrological modelling of the region and the calculation of concepts are created by scientific project partners together with local stakeholders by means of remote sensing and the construction of a measuring network that uses state-of-the-art measuring instruments. In order to anchor established methods and results in a sustainable way, TRUST develops training concepts as well as a guideline that should serve Peruvian water suppliers or planning authorities as a basis for the (further) development and future implementation of self-developed concepts. 

The joint project TRUST is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the funding program “GROW - Global Water Resources” in the “Research for Sustainable Development (FONA)” programme.