Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Planning in Developing Countries

Access to clean water and safe sanitation is one of the most critical challenges facing rapidly growing cities in developing countries. This text-based course provides a comprehensive introduction to the planning, policy, and engineering principles required to design resilient water infrastructure. You will explore how to balance technical constraints with socio-economic realities to create sustainable, community-focused solutions. By completing this course, you will gain the analytical skills to assess local water needs, evaluate sanitation technologies, and draft actionable infrastructure plans that respect environmental and financial limits. What you'll learn: - Understand the core principles of water supply and wastewater management in low-resource settings - Analyze the socio-economic and political factors that influence infrastructure planning - Evaluate decentralized and centralized sanitation technologies for urban and peri-urban areas - Apply modern planning frameworks that integrate climate resilience and water security - Design community-based water management strategies that ensure equitable access - Implement monitoring and evaluation techniques to measure project success and sustainability This course begins with foundational terminology, historical contexts, and basic planning frameworks before moving into technical evaluations of water systems, financial modeling, and policy analysis. You will progress through structured readings and real-world planning scenarios that build your practical decision-making skills. This course is designed for beginners, public policy students, aspiring urban planners, and NGO workers with no prior engineering background. Start building the skills to design lasting water and sanitation solutions today.