Infrastructure epistemologies: water, wastewater and displaced persons in Germany

Figures & data

Figure 1. System resiliency and the transition from a right to a service (from Faust and Kaminsky, 2017, used with permission).

Table 1. Coding dictionary.

Code		Typology	Representative quotes from data
Humanitarian	Human Rights	Humanitarian – human right – all people must/should/ought have services – normalcy/modernity/civilization – all people are equal – moral implications	“Safe and clean drinking water was recognized as a fundamental human right by the UN 6 years ago – it is an important building block for health”
			“Clean drinking water, which everyone in Germany has a claim to”
			“All people are equal and therefore have the same basic right to water”
			“Humanitarian responsibility”
	Basic Needs	Everyone has the same water/sanitation/hygiene needs – basic needs – people can’t live without it – people have to drink/other specific usage examples	“Just normal, every person needs water and sewage”
			“Water is essential to life”
			“A water supply is a basic need for all people”
			“Refugees and asylum seekers have at this time the same needs as you and me”
Infrastructure as service		Someone has to pay – it’s a luxury – I’m not paying for someone else – I shouldn’t pay more – displaced persons should be involved/should pay- only some should get it – it’s a problem that someone else is paying for their service	“One has to do more than increasing the costs that the citizens have to bear. That is very antisocial”
			“That the water supply for everyone living in the city is also to pay”
			“Always work for it”
			“Also they should pay themselves”

Table 2. Code counts and relative frequencies.

Code parent category	Code	Count of respondents*	Relative frequency (of 112 survey responses referencing an infrastructure epistemology)	Relative frequency (of 314 survey responses with substantive qualitative responses)
Humanitarian	Human rights	48	43%	15%
Humanitarian	Basic needs	61	54%	19%
Infrastructure as service		23	21%	7%
At least one of the above codes		112	100%	36%
All respondents		314	–	100%

*Respondents were coded to more than one category as needed to represent their answers.

Table 3. Abstract-collective responsibility vs. infrastructure epistemologies.

Respondents who feel abstract-collective responsibility to provide WASH for …			Humanitarian (95 responses)		Infrastructure as Service** (Count/% of 23)
			Human rights** (Count/% of 48)	Basic needs** (Count/% of 61)
Water (112 responses)	… 0 years*		2/4%	4/7%	4/17%
		… 1–20 years*	26/54%	37/61%	13/57%
		… Indefinitely* (>20 years)	20/42%	20/33%	6/26%
	Water sum		48/100%	61/100%	23/100%
Wastewater (112 responses)	… 0 years*		2/4%	4/7%	4/17%
		… 1–20 years*	26/54%	38/62%	13/57%
		… Indefinitely* (>20 years)	20/42%	19/31%	6/26%
	Wastewater sum		48/100%	61/100%	23/100%

*Answer to “I believe we should provide WATER/WASTEWATER service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for WATER/WASTEWATER service for a specified amount of time: (1) Yes, we should provide WATER/WASTEWATER service to incoming refugees for a defined amount of time, not indefinitely; (2) No, we should provide service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for the service, indefinitely; (3) No, we should NOT provide service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for the service for any amount of time.”

**Per emergent qualitative coding of the six open-ended questions listed in the methods section.

Table 4. Individual-local responsibility vs. infrastructure epistemologies.

Respondents who feel individual-local responsibility to provide WASH for …			Humanitarian (95 responses)		Infrastructure as service** (Count/% of 23)
			Human rights** (Count/% of 48)	Basic needs** (Count/% of 61)
Water (112 responses)	… 0 years*		17/35%	24/39%	13/57%
		… 1–20 years*	26/54%	35/57%	8/35%
		… Indefinitely* (>20 years)	5/10%	2/5%	2/9%
	Water sum		48/100%	61/100%	23/100%
Wastewater (112 responses)	…0 years*		15/31%	24/39%	14/61%
		… 1–20 Years*	28/58%	35/57%	7/30%
		… Indefinitely* (>20 years)	5/10%	2/3%	2/9%
	Wastewater sum		48/100%	61/100%	23/100%

*Categorized answer to “How LONG (years) would you be willing to pay these increased rates for your WATER/WASTEWATER service to help provide service to the incoming refugees (1–20 years, 20 years indicating indefinitely)? Click the slider at ‘0’ if you would not be willing to pay more for your water service?”.

**Per emergent qualitative coding of the six open-ended questions listed in the methods section.

Table 5. Chi-squared results, p values.

	Abstract-collective** responsibility (distribution of responses: indefinitely, temporarily, never)		Individual-local responsibility*** (distribution of responses: indefinitely, temporarily, never)
	Water	Wastewater	Water	Wastewater
Human rights coding (Code Present, Absent)	0.064	0.044	0.176	0.057
Basic needs coding (Code Present, Absent)	0.619	0.629	0.050	0.072
Infrastructure as service coding (Code Present, Absent)	0.270	0.275	0.351	0.129
Humanitarian* coding (Codes Present, Absent)	0.050	0.053	0.190	0.049

*Either of Human Rights or Basic Needs Coding.

**Answer to “I believe we should provide WATER/WASTEWATER service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for WATER/WASTEWATER service for a specified amount of time: (1) Yes, we should provide WATER/WASTEWATER service to incoming refugees for a defined amount of time, not indefinitely; (2) No, we should provide service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for the service, indefinitely; (3) No, we should NOT provide service to incoming refugees who are unable to pay for the service for any amount of time”.

***Categorized answer to “How LONG (years) would you be willing to pay these increased rates for your WATER/WASTEWATER service to help provide service to the incoming refugees (1–20 years, 20 years indicating indefinitely)? Click the slider at ‘0’ if you would not be willing to pay more for your water service?”.

Figure 2. Infrastructure epistemologies and abstract-collective vs. individual-local responsibility.

Faust, K.M. and Kaminsky, J., 2017. Building water and wastewater system resilience to disaster migration: utility perspectives. Journal of construction engineering and management, 143 (8), 04017058.

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