Small Independent Water Providers: Their Position in the Regulatory Framework for the Supply of Water in Kenya and Ethiopia

Ayalew, Mulugeta; Chenoweth, Jonathan; Malcolm, Rosalind; Mulugetta, Yacob; Okotto, Lorna Grace; Pedley, Steve

doi:10.1093/jel/eqt028

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Given the growing policy emphasis on reducing inequalities relating to water and sanitation, an important question is the extent to which such interventions can be considered pro-poor and how the incidence of benefits from well upgrading might vary across different socio-economic groups. With urban hand-dug well upgrading, the analysis of benefits is often complicated by the presence of a supply chain (Ayalew et al, 2014), through which well owners may supply vendors who in turn sell groundwater on to consumers lacking reliable piped water connections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic aspects of domestic groundwater consumption, vending and use in Kisumu, Kenya

Okotto

Okotto-Okotto²,

Price

et al. 2015

Applied Geography

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Shallow hand-dug wells are commonly used to supplement partial or intermittent piped water coverage in many urban informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa. Such wells are often microbially contaminated. This study aimed to quantify the amount of such groundwater consumed, identify the socio-economic profile of well owners and consumers, and patterns of domestic water usage in informal settlements in Kisumu, Kenya. Building on a previous study, 51 well owners and 137 well customers were interviewed about well water abstraction, water usage and handling patterns, asset ownership, and service access. An estimated 472m3 of groundwater per day was abstracted in two informal settlements, with most groundwater consumers using this water for purposes other than drinking or cooking. According to an asset index, well owners were significantly wealthier than both the customers purchasing their groundwater and those drinking or cooking with untreated groundwater. This suggests that shallow groundwater sources provide poorer urban households with a substantial volume of water for domestic purposes other than drinking and cooking. Ongoing challenges are thus to raise awareness of the health risks of such water among the minority of consumers who consume untreated groundwater and find means of working with well owners to manage well water quality

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic aspects of domestic groundwater consumption, vending and use in Kisumu, Kenya

Okotto

Okotto-Okotto²,

Price

et al. 2015

Applied Geography

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“…At times, temporary unsustainability seems unavoidable during the transformation. Water vendors are in some cases the only source of drinking water for periurban communities, securing basic needs [102]. They deliver services in an institutional vacuum, where the traditional rural water supply, based on wells, is no longer available and new forms of water supply have not yet emerged.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In either case, the new small water enterprises bridge gaps in the existing infrastructure that result from rapid urban growth [97,100] and are viewed positively by economists who highlight, that they work without subsidies [101]. Their contribution to the stabilisation of water supply has so far not been adequately captured in water frameworks [102]. Yet in many cases this water supply comes at very high cost-up to 40 times the price consumers with a piped connection pay per litre -for the consumers, for whom water vendors may be the only source of water [102].Thus, water vending has to be assessed ambivalently: In the current situation it is the best response to governance failures, in the long run, proper water connections for each household are needed in periurban areas.…”

Section: Emerging and Diversification Water-based Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, they are also causing overexploitation of resources and a depletion of water quality [24,95]. Positive aspects are related to the contribution of water vendors to increase the access to water and to the creation of new non-agricultural forms of income [102]. Yet, these aspects have hardly been researched so far.…”

Section: Emerging and Diversification Water-based Livelihoodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Periurban Transformations in the Global South and Their Impact on Water-Based Livelihoods

Butsch

Heinkel

2020

Water

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Urban sprawl and population increase are fundamentally transforming periurban areas in the Global South. These areas often suffer from inadequate environmental planning, resulting in water sources being overexploited, degraded, and redistributed. These processes affect water-based livelihoods due to disadvantages in water access and inadequate water governance. On the positive side, these transformation processes are leading to alternative water-based livelihoods. We systematically review and critically comment on the literature on water-based livelihoods in periurban areas of the Global South to provide the current scientific knowledge on this topic. Transformations of water-based livelihoods in periurban areas were also evaluated in terms of their sustainability. We conclude that rapid developments of periurban areas contain threats and potentials for water-based livelihoods and some emerging water-based livelihoods, whereas some emerging water-based livelihoods provide interim solutions for institutional supply gaps. Major lacunae in research are the (1) lack of holistic approaches, which address social dimensions of transformations, (2) the lack of studies applying a differentiated perspective on neighbouring areas within the urban fringe and (3) a lack of knowledge on emerging (water-based) livelihoods.

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“…Consequently, water vending phenomenon requires a proper regulatory environment, as we note that it is part of an emerging urban informal economy [96]. This sort of transition is so crucial since water vending may be the only source of clean water to some peri-urban households in developing countries [97] [98]. In these places, water tanker ferrying is the most common conveyance mode like the case of Chennai, India [99].…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Implication of Unreliable Urban Water Supply Service: The Case of Vendor Water Cost in Langata Sub County, Nairobi City, Kenya

Ochungo¹,

Ouma²,

Obiero³

et al. 2019

JWARP

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Studies on urban water supply service improvements continue to draw interest across the world. The pressure on freshwater resources is increasing in every region in the face of an increasing demand and climate change dynamics. Langata sub County in Nairobi city, Kenya faces drought induced water shortage and households rely on water vending and bottled water purchases to augment the inadequate municipal water supplies. Little to our knowledge has been done to assess the cost implication of such a practice here. So the study used household survey method to collect monthly households' water bills comprising; utility company, water tanker delivery and bottled water purchase from a randomly sampled 382 households spread within the five wards; Karen, South C, Mugumoini, Nairobi West and Nyayo Highrise. The gated communities identified are 57. Simple stochastic analysis of the data was done after data cleaning using MS Excel. It was found that the municipal water serves up to 91.15% of the total average household monthly water demand with a cost share of 27.91%. Water tanker delivery meets 8.61% of the household water demand with a cost share of 50.74%. The bottled water purchases serve 0.24% of a typical household water demand with a total cost share of 21.35%. The water supply deficit which is a mere 8.85% met by tanker deliveries and bottled water purchases has a total average cost share of 72.09%. The computed cost burden is 258%. This means that the households pay more than two and a half times extra above the utility bill per month. The study recommends a new water policy that will incorporate the role of water vendors operated on a cooperative model by the gated communities using standard guidelines. How to cite this paper: Ochungo, E.A., Journal of Water Resource and Protection vulnerability of public water supply systems to impacts of climate variability [26] [27] [28].Accordingly, households nowadays do supplement with vended water transported by one or a number of these methods: head-ported or hand-held water containers [29], walking tractors, bicycles, hand-carts/donkey carts [30] [31], motorbikes and owner-managed water access systems for a home or a community [32]. One other popular coping strategy is buying from neighbors; a practice found in Accra city, Ghana according to [33]. Such daily distressful struggles for water access service makes urban dualism concept real as the beneficiaries are known to be living in urban settings with on-site water utility infrastructure [34] [35]. Further, the selection of a choice of water source with a suitable quality is not easy [36]. Despite the prevailing choice quandary, water vendors serve about 10% -69% of households in developing nations' cities [37]. On the other hand, selling of water to customers is a very important economic activity to the vendors [38]. That is why they always choose to ignore repugnant waterscape labels like 'mafias' as in Bangalore city, India [39].

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Small Independent Water Providers: Their Position in the Regulatory Framework for the Supply of Water in Kenya and Ethiopia

Cited by 21 publications

References 3 publications

Socio-economic aspects of domestic groundwater consumption, vending and use in Kisumu, Kenya

Socio-economic aspects of domestic groundwater consumption, vending and use in Kisumu, Kenya

Periurban Transformations in the Global South and Their Impact on Water-Based Livelihoods

The Implication of Unreliable Urban Water Supply Service: The Case of Vendor Water Cost in Langata Sub County, Nairobi City, Kenya

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