Informal community‐based supply, characterised by abstractions from surface water and shallow wells, is the main water supply source in the urban areas of developing nations. Formal sector supply has failed to extend their services to many urban areas yet the formal sector continues to view these community‐based practices as small‐scale, traditional and ‘backward’, and ones that must be eradicated from urban areas. While the formal sector continues to idealise the notion of the ‘modern infrastructure ideal’, based solely upon the expansion of piping networks, this paper argues against this ideal, instead presenting an opportunity for ‘institutional bricolage’ between the formal sector and the techniques that have arisen as a part of informal community‐based water supply in developing nations. Based on interview and questionnaire data, this paper uses the city of Ndola, Zambia to demonstrate the resilience that has arisen within communities as a response to the failure of the formal sector, and hence the value of informal supply systems in the future water provisioning policies for developing cities. Informal supply is abundant in Ndola and local communities have taken their pre‐existing rural customs and adapted these to provide water in the urban context; so that hand dug shallow wells now dominate supply. These practices have been successful in providing daily water, however, challenges remain, for example ensuring safe water quality with appropriate well protection. Herein lies the opportunity for the formal sector to become involved in informal community‐based supply; instead of aiming to marginalise the residents of informal areas out of urban centres, the formal sector should adopt and better support the techniques used in informal areas, for example, through well protection education and provision of resources, to help in achieving the MDG for safe water.
Access
to continuous water supply is key for improving health and
economic outcomes in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries,
but the factors associated with continuous water access in these areas
have not been well-characterized. We surveyed 4786 households for
evidence of technical, financial, institutional, social, and environmental
predictors of rural water service continuity (WSC), defined as the
percentage of the year that water is available from a source. Multiple
imputed fractional logistic regression models that account for the
survey design were used to assess operational risks to WSC for piped
supply, tube wells, boreholes, springs, dug wells, and surface water
for the rural populations of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Mozambique.
Multivariable regressions indicate that households using multiple
water sources were associated with lower WSC in Bangladesh, Pakistan,
and Mozambique. However, the possibility must be considered that households
may use more than one water source because services are intermittent.
Water scarcity and drought were largely unassociated with WSC, suggesting
that service interruptions may not be primarily due to physical water
resource constraints. Consistent findings across countries may have
broader relevance for meeting established targets for service availability
as well as human health.
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