Wastewater pollution is a widespread problem across the world which gives rise to environmental and health-related impacts. Challenges are amplified on tropical islands where the tourism sector has rapidly grown and where the development of management is staying behind. While wastewater management is often still perceived as a domain reserved for engineering and scientific expertise, a growing body of literature points to its inherent political nature. How wastewater is perceived in terms of severity, for whom it is considered a problem, who should get access to what, and what appropriate solutions are, is far from a politically-neutral exercise. In fact, decision-making is strongly shaped by inherent power dynamics which determine whose knowledge gets included or excluded. This, in turn, gives shape to local management arrangements, which I define as "wastewaterscapes".
Building on a systematic literature review, a policy analysis, and network mapping interviews, I engaged in a comparative case study looking at the islands of Gili Trawangan (Indonesia), San Andrés (Colombia), and Zanzibar. Going beyond the identification of separate knowledge systems and their relation to the management implemented on the ground, I looked more deeply into actual exchanges of knowledge between different stakeholders, conceptualized as "knowledge flows". This allows tracing how different stakeholders contribute to decision-making, and how different kinds of knowledge are subsequently included or excluded by decision-makers. I looked at perceived interactions, using knowledge flow mapping interviews, and considered how knowledge flows are prescribed in policy documents using an AI-supported approach. I compared insights from policy and practice and built on previous literature to reflect on what is driving knowledge use, what implications of existing patterns are, and what ways could be available to accommodate to a broader range of knowledge.
Findings show how a focus on knowledge flows can give a detailed view of stakeholder contributions, and adds further nuance. For example, stakeholder knowledge may overlap but its actual use in decision-making can be determined by a wide range of factors (e.g., social class differences). Findings reflect the relatively closed nature of wastewater management decision-making, often informed by a select group of expert stakeholders, and the study points at the inherent risks of such narrower interpretations. Going further, it is shown how reports on wastewater issues or community recommendations can get lost due to unclear roles and responsibilities, perpetuating challenges. Where there often is a focus on awareness-raising efforts at community level, and decentralized governance arrangements are pursued, stakeholder roles and responsibilities will need to be clarified to make these effective and reach objectives. For this, the study emphasizes investing in existing, but still underdeveloped, coordination mechanisms to bring governmental and non-governmental stakeholders together. These could serve as important platforms to strengthen regulatory frameworks and develop effective and inclusive management strategies.