The role of power, politics and history in achieving sanitation service provision in informal urban environments: a case study of Lusaka, Zambia

Kennedy-Walker, Ruth; Amézaga, Jaime M.; Paterson, Charlotte

doi:10.1177/0956247815583253

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, the state is not capable enough to serve the people equally in terms of the basic services. Kennedy-Walker (2015) said that it is always a tough task for the urban local bodies (ULBs) to extend basic services like water and sanitation to the poorest people who mainly live in the densely populated, low-income, informal settlements. Vedachalam and Riha (2015: 120) opined that in India, income, caste and gender mainly control the access to water and sanitation largely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sanitation and Hygiene of Darjeeling City: A Crisis for Women and Adolescent Girls

Koner¹

2018

SACI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

By the end of the Millennium Development Goal's target year, 2015, India had been declared as a country, which has made moderate progress in terms of improvement in basic sanitation provision for all. Yet open defecation is still a regular practice of a significant proportion of the population in both urban and rural areas. The Indian government has been trying to address this problem for the last three decades through different programmes. However, though the effort is laudable, in reality, the countrywide situation is not so praiseworthy. Lack of sanitation provisions affects people in different ways with different intensities along the lines of class, gender, age, disability, and marginality. In Darjeeling city, due to lack of proper sanitation facilities, a significant portion of the population uses public toilets, which are less in number compared to the demand. People face a variety of difficulties and hurdles in using public toilets, and as a result, continue to practice open defecation during the night and early morning. Among the users, women and adolescent girls suffer more than the others. Moreover, in this city, a significant portion of the population faces acute water crisis during the dry months. This empirical study tries to explore the different ways through which women and adolescent girls are affected by the lack of safe sanitation facilities within the house premises. The article also argues that lack of sanitation provision should be considered as a matter of violence against women and adolescent girls because the situation makes them vulnerable to the risk of being violated or sexually abused.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sanitation and Hygiene of Darjeeling City: A Crisis for Women and Adolescent Girls

Koner¹

2018

SACI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Drying up of the springs within the city is linked with the uncontrolled land-use management by the city government, which is further linked with political decisions to a great extent. Following Kennedy-Walker et al (2015) it can be said that it is always a durable task for the urban local bodies (ULBs) to extend basic services to the poorest people who mainly live in the densely populated, low-income, informal settlements. As Chaplin (2011) opined regarding the poor sanitation conditions of India, allocation of financial resources and implementation of new projects are strongly influenced by political considerations rather than environmental or societal needs.…”

Section: Source Of Corruption and Illegalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Where does water go’? A critical analysis of nature of water crisis in Darjeeling city, India

Koner

Samanta

2021

Appl Water Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Water crisis is such a phenomenon that almost every city experiences to some extent these days. Nature, dimensions, and impact of the crisis vary based on spatial diversity. This article attempts to critically analyse the nature of water crisis and to find out the reasons behind such crisis in Darjeeling city. The city’s public water supply is mainly controlled by the municipal authority, and water is supplied from the Senchal lakes. The centralised system, developed by the British in the early nineteenth century, is not sufficient for the entire city at present, and not affordable for all classes as well. Primarily the scarcity emerged due to the city’s population growth, and the city’s changing commercial nature, especially the booming tourism sector. And the age-old water infrastructure cannot cope with the fast-growing demand for water. Moreover, still now municipal authority does not consider a large number of transitory population, while calculating the water demand. Massive gap exists between the actual water scarcity observed in the field and the scarcity shown in the official data. Therefore, a reconsideration of municipal water budget is required to manage water resources and services sustainably. Using both the quantitative and qualitative methods, this empirical study critically assesses the existing gap between demand and supply, and also explores the process of illegal flow of water thus making the scarcity even more intense. It argues for fair and active water governance to minimise the demand–supply gap, and active community participation to ensure water justice to the commons.

show abstract

“…Furthermore, there is increasing recognition that assumptions that all incomes in informal settlements are low and unable to pay for services may be misplaced (Satterthwaite & Mitlin, 2014). Insights into the changing attitudes of authorities emerge from Lusaka where the corporatised Water and Sanitation Company provide services in an urban centre in which over 60 per cent of residents live in informal settlements (Kennedy-Walker, Amezega, & Patterson, 2015). Some argue that residents have limited ability to pay, but one Ministry of Local Government and Housing official suggested otherwise: I don't agree with this excuse.…”

Section: Informal Settlements As Sites Of Experimentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informality as Experimentation: Water Utilities’ Strategies for Cost Recovery and their Consequences for Universal Access

Mitlin

Walnycki

2019

The Journal of Development Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper considers the modalities by which utilities in four sub-Saharan African cities have extended water services into low-income settlements and examines their consequences for household access to water. We argue that water utilities and other public agencies supplying water are experimenting, drawing on the approaches of informal suppliers, to find ways to extend their coverage into low-income and/or informal neighbourhoods despite their legal status. While this experimentation appears to be extending access, prices prevent low-income households from being able to purchase sufficient quantities of water from public suppliers. Prices remain high in a context in which cost-recovery is a priority for utilities. Using a critical political economy approach, we argue that water pricing strategies applied in informal settlements present a form of accumulation enacted through the 'market integration' of low-income, primarily informal households that appears to undermine attempts to build the universal access to water services promised by Sustainable Development Goal 6.

show abstract

The role of power, politics and history in achieving sanitation service provision in informal urban environments: a case study of Lusaka, Zambia

Cited by 16 publications

References 10 publications

Sanitation and Hygiene of Darjeeling City: A Crisis for Women and Adolescent Girls

Sanitation and Hygiene of Darjeeling City: A Crisis for Women and Adolescent Girls

‘Where does water go’? A critical analysis of nature of water crisis in Darjeeling city, India

Informality as Experimentation: Water Utilities’ Strategies for Cost Recovery and their Consequences for Universal Access

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About