Book,
Governance of Water and Sanitation Services for the Peri-urban Poor. A Framework for Understanding and Action in Metropolitan Regions
DPU books The Development Planning Unit, 9, Endsleigh Gardens, (May 2006)
Abstract
It is a well-documented fact that in many countries water supply and sanitation systems
fall short of present and future requirements. Some of the world's poorest people lack
adequate access to these most basic of services. The well-being and livelihoods of millions of
households and home-based enterprises in urban and peri-urban areas are seriously impaired
by the considerable time and money spent collecting water, buying it from private vendors or
fighting diseases arising from deficient water supplies and poor or non-existent sanitation.
And yet, national and international initiatives and commitments to improve access to
water and sanitation in the developing world tend to neglect the peri-urban context. This is all
the more important since the conventional distinction between urban and rural areas is
becoming more blurred and, therefore, less useful as a component of planning and other
government attempts to guide physical expansion and promote economic growth. This
distinction also fails to represent the daily reality of millions of people whose lives and incomeearning
activities straddle both the rural and the urban spheres. This document advances the
argument that a specific institutional approach is needed to water and sanitation service
provision that takes into account peri-urban realities.
The importance of considering water and sanitation in the peri-urban interface of
metropolitan areas and regions arises from the fact that there are social, economic, environmental
and institutional interactions between urban and rural areas which are captured in this
interface. It is here where many of the processes of change in urban-rural flows take place,
leading both to problems and to opportunities not only for peri-urban communities but also
for the sustainable development of adjacent rural and urban systems. The peri-urban interface
often acts as an 'environmental sink' for liquid and solid waste from the denser urban core.
Thus, for example, urban wastewater can be used for peri-urban irrigation as well as for periurban
industrial cooling systems. This calls for wider integrated water management
interventions which build on these problems and opportunities.
The peri-urban interface is associated at the same time with both rural and urban
features and consists of highly heterogeneous and rapidly changing socio-economic groups.
This diversity means that the needs and demands of local populations and producers for water
and sanitation services are also quite diverse and change over time. The identification of these
needs is more complex than in either urban or rural areas due to the particular mix of
newcomers and long-established dwellers, and also because farming, residential and industrial
land uses often coexist. This calls for an institutional and technical set-up which responds to
this diversity and to the changing needs of peri-urban residents and enterprises.
Peri-urban provision of basic services in a metropolitan context is also shaped by a wide
range of spatial and non-spatial policies and a high variety of agencies operating with
overlapping and sometimes contradictory remits. Some policies may point in the direction of
controlling the peri-urban expansion of metropolitan areas, while others might aim in the opposite direction (for example, encouraging the relocation of manufacturing industries from
the urban core to the periphery). An adequate framework for intervention requires a better
understanding of the impact of both spatial (for example, a 'green belt' around metropolitan
areas) and non-spatial policies (for example, agricultural subsidies).
In many countries, peri-urban areas generally lie outside the coverage of formal
networked water and sanitation systems, which are, in most cases, restricted to a relatively
small metropolitan core. Part of the reason for this is that many peri-urban settlements
develop outside existing formal regulations, affecting their formal right to these basic services.
However, if adequate land policies and official control procedures are in place, the goal of
improving access to water and sanitation by the peri-urban poor should not necessarily require
formal land or housing tenure, but might instead focus on collective land rights and responsibilities
for paying for these basic services.
One important conclusion arising from the case studies is that, in a context of rapid
peri-urban population growth and environmental change, weak or inadequate official
institutions, conventional supply-driven, centralised network systems for water supply and
sanitation services may never become the norm in poor peri-urban settlements. In many
countries, extension of these conventional systems will stretch official institutions beyond their
capacities. In contrast with urban areas, the lower population densities and higher distance to
centralised wastewater disposal systems that characterise peri-urban areas mean that such
centralised solutions demand high investments for collection and disposal, which prevent
economies of scale and are unaffordable by the poor. Planners and decision-makers should be
prepared to consider instead decentralised approaches involving greater user involvement with
less capital-intensive solutions. Similarly, small-scale commercial firms or not-for-profit
operators (e.g. NGOs or community-based organisations) may provide, with minimum official
control, adequate, affordable and more sustainable services such as water from local sources
or latrine-emptying services. In a flexible and responsive regulatory environment, such noncentralised
services may offer a solution that is more in keeping with the changing needs of
local users.
Governance in the peri-urban interface tends to be severely fragmented, with a
multitude of actors and no single organisation (either public or private) providing guidance or
leadership. Institutional fragmentation tends to be even more severe in the metropolitan
context, where multiple agencies often coexist with overlapping remits. In the specific case of
water and sanitation services, the extent of service provision, the range and number of actors
involved and the strategies they adopt vary significantly in relation to the different stages of the
'water cycle' (the water cycle describes the route taken by water in its different stages from
extraction to disposal). Recent trends to 'unbundle' the different stages of the water cycle by
allocating them to different actors (be they public, private, community or a combination of
these) tend to exacerbate this institutional fragmentation. This is particularly true in peri-urban
areas.
The goals of improving peri-urban water and sanitation require diverse technical and
political strategies at each stage of the cycle, which may involve supporting multiple local
agents. In practice, peri-urban water supply and, to a lesser extent, sanitation services are in
the hands of a range of formal and informal agents. This diversity of practices is higher in the
stages of distribution and access. Peri-urban poor communities often lack the resources and
incentives to become involved in (large-scale) extraction, treatment and storage of water.
However, large-scale, formal, private agents alone are unlikely to serve the needs of the periurban
poor at the different stages of the water cycle. Therefore, greater official recognition is
needed of unconventional service providers and the efforts of local residents and enterprises
to secure stable and affordable services. This involves the active support of 'non-hierarchical'
and 'cooperative' relations of production and provision of water and sanitation services.
The peri-urban poor rely mainly on a wide spectrum of informal practices to access
water and sanitation which often remain 'invisible' to policy makers and lie outside formal
support strategies and mechanisms. Whilst 'policy-driven' mechanisms are currently unable to
address the needs of the peri-urban poor, their 'needs-driven' coping strategies appear to be
more effective means of improving their access to these services. Addressing the needs of the
peri-urban poor, therefore, demands a better understanding of the rationale and rules that
govern informal practices and of the ways in which these could be articulated to the formal
water supply and sanitation system.
Peri-urban residents and producers are exposed to a combination of rural and urban
health hazards associated with water consumption and waterborne pathogens. Household
and surface drainage systems are generally combined and this increases the risk of exposure
to waterborne and water-washed diseases. When competition for limited water resources is
high, it is common for peri-urban farmers to reuse untreated wastewater for irrigation,
thereby posing potentially serious health hazards for agricultural workers and consumers of
food produced using wastewater. The health and livelihoods of the peri-urban poor bear the
brunt of these risks because they often inhabit low lying and marginal lands, which are more
susceptible to flooding by contaminated water and other wastewater forms of pollution. A
possible response may be to adopt decentralised wastewater management techniques to
increase opportunities for wastewater re-use, resource recovery and improvements in local
environmental health conditions. Similarly, many water-related diseases can be prevented by
improving hygiene practices and awareness-raising.
Tags
- africa
- angola
- argentina
- bangladesh
- bolivia
- colombia
- egypt
- haiti
- honduras
- india
- mexico
- peri-urban
- sanitation
- senegal
- south
- tanzania
- venezuela
- water
Users
Comments and Reviewsshow / hide
- @anamfc 10 years agoA) The book aims to be a framework for governance of water and sanitation services (WSS) for the peri-urban zones in Metropolitan Regions, offering a conceptual and practical tool for those involved directly or indirectly in the long-term planning and/or daily management of basic service provision in the metropolitan regions of developing countries. The book is based on 5 case studies, 2 of them in Africa: Cairo metropolitan region, in Egypt and Dar es Salaam metropolitan region in Tanzania. The results of the study are applied to some experiences in 9 cities in 9 different countries, 3 of them in Africa: Rufisque Dioukoul (Senegal), Luanda (Angola) and Tshwane (South Africa) The main ideas of the book are: 1. Peri-urban potentials can serve as opportunities for whole metropolitan regions 2. Compatibility policy analysis can help reducing negative policy outcomes (for instance reinforcing unequal access to services). 3. Building responsible citizenship and political commitment are essential for integrated water management 4. Progressive WSS schemes are able to respond and adjust to the dynamics of the peri-urban interface 5. Better water services with an emphasis on productive use are a means to alleviate poverty 6. Peri-urban poor can benefit from the provision of collective land rights and responsibility for services payment. 7. Where private contractors are reluctant to extend WSS to peri-urban poor communities, public-private-civil society partnerships are capable of providing WSS solutions that simultaneously contribute to poverty reduction and environmental protection 8. Improvements can be made through active support for non-hierarchical and cooperative relations of production and provision of water supply and sanitation. This can additionally be done through emphasising the role of women and children, as they are currently paying a 'higher cost' when water supply and sanitation facilities are lacking 9. Affordable water supply and sanitation schemes through public standpipes can be supported by multi-stakeholder partnerships 10. Cooperation between the public water supply utility and community water committees can meet the needs of the poor and be financially viable 11. Approaches to improve water supply and sanitation can start off as needs-driven practices and, over time, become incorporated into and supported by the formal system 12. Collective initiatives in wastewater collection, treatment, recycling and disposal can solve local wastewater problems and refuse problems and make people aware of the links between them 13. Community-based schemes can provide low-cost solutions to wastewater collection, treatment, reuse and disposal 14. Women play important roles in mobilizing and organising the community and are often involved in the financial management of water supply and sanitation schemes B) In this comment I will focus in the ideas 2, 9 and 13 of the authors because they have case studies in Africa. Compatibility policy analysis can help reducing negative policy outcomes (for instance reinforcing unequal access to services) The concept of peri-urban areas, according to the authors, is mainly those informal areas that are around the cities where there is a lack of formality in urban planning. Those areas are in a limbo between as urban and rural in respect to policies and infrastructural planning. Peri-urban settlements should be planned as part of the city, but sometimes the city expands and grows so fast to the outer neighborhoods, that the urban planning isn’t fast enough to prevent the informality of the settlement. According to the authors of this book, in the metropolitan context, peri-urban water supply and sanitation provision is affected by a wide range of spatial and non-spatial policies and a high variety of agencies operating with overlapping and/or contradictory remits. Spatial and non-spatial policies often promote unintended contradictory outcomes and competing demands on water resources for various uses. I think the authors are right. I was recently involved in a report of the state of territorial planning in Angola and I found not only the main law about water uses but 16 more laws and policies and 3 international agreements related to water supply and sanitation in urban areas. All this regulatory policies, some of them spatial and other non-spatial, have to be taken in account when planning the infrastructures, but the desirable way was to define peri-urban areas as urban, to prevent negative policy outcomes for the citizens who inhabit it. This may be done by attaching those areas to the urban planning every time is possible. Unfortunately, some of those peri-urban areas are sometimes “non eadificandi” areas, because of the natural hazards and/or ecological value of the land. In those cases, the urban policies and plans should find a solution for those who live in those areas, as much as according to all their needs and aims as possible. Progressive WSS schemes are able to respond and adjust to the dynamics of the peri-urban interface (PUI) According to the authors, the PUI is associated with both rural and urban features and composed of highly heterogeneous and rapidly changing socio-economic groups. Thus, WSS needs and demands are highly diverse and subject to changes over time. The identification of water supply and sanitation needs in the PUI is more complex than in urban and rural areas because of the particular mix of newcomers and long-established dwellers and also of farming, residential and industrial land uses that often coexist in peri-urban areas. Changing needs and demands in the PUI need to be examined in the context of rural-urban links and broader trends in land use, migration, etc.WSS improvements for many peri-urban water poor require addressing not only personal consumption but also the water needed for productive processes to improve their livelihoods. I agree with the authors. Although, I think the planning of peri-urban areas should be done integrated in the urban areas. I think the entire city may accommodate residential, commercial, industrial and even farming land uses. Many problems about the lack of infrastructures in general and water in particular is, in my opinion, because, of peri-urban areas are being separated from the “core” of the city. An international symposium held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in January 2003 reached the next conclusions: - Productive use of water at the household level by poor people reduces poverty; - People require more than their domestic water needs to be productive; - Productive use enhances the sustainability of water supply systems and services; - People need local solutions and multiple sources for multiple uses; and, - An integrated approach is essential to achieve significant impacts on poverty. Further information about the initiative is available at: http://www.prodwat.watsan.net/ Affordable water supply and sanitation schemes through public standpipes can be supported by multi-stakeholder partnerships The authors refer The Sambizanga Project in Luanda, an example of a community-led and widely supported initiative to provide household level facilities, such as public standpipes and dry-pit latrines which has been replicated city-wide. Facing increasing difficulties due to massive urban migration in recent years, Luanda's peri-urban areas have often gone ignored during periods of infrastructure improvements. The cement city is surrounded by the vast, densely-populated squatter areas (musseques), which have long been regarded as transitional settlements destined for replacement and thus unworthy of government investment. Water, drainage and sanitation infrastructure is overwhelmingly inadequate, resulting in high rates of waterborne and excreta-related diseases. 60% of urban households live below the poverty line and there is a wide and growing gap between rich and poor. The Sambizanga project has alleviated strains on households, who were spending a quarter of their income on water, allowing them to redirect their earnings and benefit from water standpipes run as small enterprises by local committees. At the time of project initiation, the musseques relied on some 10,000 informal water vendors, the majority of whom bought untreated water from tanker vendors and re-sold it for many times the price of piped water in the cement city, with the result that many poor households spend 25% of their income on water. The situation with regard to sanitation is worse still, with fewer than 50% of musseque households having access to adequate on-site excreta disposal. The Sambizanga project in Luanda, Angola, offers a successful example of community installation and management of water standpipes and family dry-pit latrines in the city's musseques. By the end of 1997, the number of standpipes in the city had been increased from 50 to 220, serving an estimated 120,000 musseques-dwellers, supported by partnerships between local communities, local authorities, the municipal water company (EPAL) and civil society groups. Also, between 1995 and 2000, 5,000 dry-pit latrines have been constructed, based on a system in which community mobilisers work with families in designated localities to encourage and support latrine development, with the aim of achieving provision in 90% of households in the locality Water standpipes are run as small enterprises, with a community committee elected to collect water fees, to pay the water company and to oversee maintenance. The low overheads inherent in this system enable the committees to sell water at rates as low as 12% of those charged by private vendors. The sanitation component of the project was added subsequently and is based on a similar approach to community-based commerce. Dry-pit latrines have been introduced into areas with no sewage system, with latrine workshops established in selected neighborhoods to sell latrine slabs and to provide credit facilities to families for their purchase. The project has also contributed to improvements in governance systems through an emphasis on engaging with local government using participatory techniques. As a result of the potential for the project to provide a sustainable source of self-funding in local service provision, Luanda authorities have supported this form of engagement. Indeed, user fees provide an additional source of revenue (revenues from standpipes are shared on the following basis: 30% EPAL, 20% local government, 25% maintenance fund, 25% water committee). In my opinion, this kind of initiatives can be done with success in African cities in situations of social emergency. This project was put on action in a context of civil war in Angola, when the public investment wasn’t possible to be made in the wellbeing of the citizens. In these cases, I think these kinds of initiatives are very helpful. In the context of urban planning for the future, I think it’s still possible to promote affordable water supply and sanitation and that can be supported by multi-stakeholder partnerships. Many times, the access to water (at least in Angola) is still charged to the citizens at insupportable prices by informal water vendors. In Luanda the vendors take water illegally from taps they install in the main pipes of the city and resell to citizens (http://www.portalangop.co.ao/angola/pt_pt/noticias/economia/2012/6/29/Garimpo-rouba-100-milhoes-litros-agua-dia-EPAL,694c7fd3-b90a-4228-9f20-c211a4ae27a0.html) I think the citizens and EPAL, the water company in Luanda, can promote the access to water and sanitation, preferably in households or, if not possible, in standpipes at adequate distances. The initial investment can be supported by the government, EPAL and citizens, the latest with the payment of their land title that gives them the right to settle and to have some level of infrastructures and services. Community-based schemes can provide low-cost solutions to wastewater collection, treatment, reuse and disposal The Dakar case study in Section 3 of the book provides an example of a system involving shallow sewers to transport wastewater to decentralized treatment plants. In Rufisque Dioukoul, 25km outside the Senegalese capital of Dakar, local authorities and communities have successfully established a waste-water collection, treatment and disposal scheme. Focusing on a sewage system and treatment facility, the initiative is working toward a future in which agriculture is supported by wastewater. The partnership is based on a strong community foundation and metropolitan-level reforms aiming to spread welfare to residents. Among the achievements of this scheme are the establishment of local savings, community-led and managed initiatives and significant progress in advancing power-sharing procedures. The initiative is centered on a low-cost, shallow sewerage system linked to a decentralized treatment plant with purification and recycling components. Local young people are engaged to treat and combine wastewater, sewage and refuse to form compost for market gardens. The scheme envisages that in the future, treated wastewater will be used for urban agriculture and aquifer recharge and will be extended to include the collection of solid waste in horse-drawn carts. Initiated with kick-off funding, it now relies on a revolving fund that mobilizes and manages local savings with a brief to also fund other community-led initiatives. Local management committees guarantee the fund. I think this is a really good initiative. Usually the wastewater treatment is only viewed as a cost. The benefits in environmental and health are often forgotten because are only perceived in long term. If it’s possible to take immediate economic benefit of wastewater treatment, I think the financing of urban planning can be much better. There are other initiatives regarding economic benefits of wastewater treatment like the production of energy, but usually this involve a lot of technology and sometimes the profit taken isn’t enough to pay the equipment needed to produce the energy. The technology of wastewater treatment used in these cases isn’t necessarily the more often used in poor or less infrastructure regions because is energy consumer. There are sometimes better and less expensive solutions to wastewater treatment in peri-urban poor areas. Some cases and thesis about this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23787329 http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/pdf/agrener/n5v2/071.pdf http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0973082610000165 http://www.waterworld.com/articles/print/volume-28/issue-9/departments/wwema/capturing-energy-in-wastewater-treatment-plants.html C) I work in urban planning in Africa in the infrastructures field since 2004 and I thought this book could be a good help to my work. I think this book gives some good ideas about water and sanitation governance, collecting very good case studies done before 2006. Many of the situations described in this book are related not only with the characteristics of peri-urban areas or poverty but much more about the lack of governance of the cities and countries in general. According to my experience in urban planning in Angola, the socio-economical context changed so much as the authors refer the peri-urban changes. The end of civil war, the improvement of formal education (including universities) and the will of the government in planning and implementing infrastructures may think the experiences referred in this book are becoming obsolete. However, the materialization of the urban planning takes a lot of time and while is not taken in to practice, the good ideas of this book can be implemented.