Title: Agency and pathways to resilience in urban water supplies
Speaker: Dr. Adrian Healy (Cardiff University)
Date & Time: Wednesday, 25th February 2026, 1:00 -3:00PM
Location: 54 / 8033 (8B)
Session Overview:
Climate change, rapid urbanisation, rising populations and ageing infrastructures, allied with economic growth and prosperity, create a precarious environment for urban water supplies, particularly in the global South. Conventionally, the provision of urban water supplies has been the responsibility of state actors and is typically modelled on institutional structures that evolved in the global north during the ‘long’ nineteenth century. Across multiple urban settings in the global south, and in the face of insecure or unreliable public water provision, individual actors are contributing to the emergence and evolution of new pathways of urban water supply, raising questions as to the role of agency in the unfolding of resilience in practice. Drawing on examples from cities in sub-Saharan Africa, I explore the influence individual actions have on the emergence of new pathways for urban water supplies, consider the influence of the hidden hydrogeology, and discuss the implications of these interactions for how we conceptualise agency in our thinking of resilience. In doing so, I ask whether policymakers, in both the global north and the global south, should embrace alternative approaches in considering the resilience of urban water supplies and of our cities more broadly.
Please fill in Dr. Adrian Healy – Agency and pathways to resilience in urban water supplies. – Fill out form to confirm attendance – so we can gauge attendance for the event.
Refreshments will be provided 😊
We look forward to seeing you there!