From curiosity to commodity: a review of the evolution of sachet drinking water in West Africa

Abstract

The private sector continues to play an important role in filling local drinking water supply gaps across the Global South. In West Africa, a perfect storm of rapid population growth, infrastructure mismanagement, and globalization of consumer markets has resulted in the advent of an entire new industry around packaged water, primarily ‘sachet water’ sold in mechanically sealed plastic sleeves. Most local governments and international development agencies have historically perceived sachet water as a passing trend, but it has quickly become a primary drinking water source for the majority of households in many urban areas and continues to spread throughout the region and world. Sachet water is now an important component of regional water security, although with attendant issues related to governance, quality control, environmental pollution, and social justice. This paper reviews the seminal literature on sachet water in West Africa, with particular emphasis on Ghana and Nigeria, where most studies have focused. This review synthesizes governance issues, consumer and industry trends, and the latest on product quality in the literature from 2011 to 2016, with 2010 approximating an inflection point for the modernization of the industry. The ability of many West African nations to achieve universal access to safe drinking water may depend on their willingness to understand and incorporate the sachet water industry into an integrated drinking water platform. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1206. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1206 This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Human Water > Water Governance

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“…This classification scheme does not fully address newer water services, such as tanker or packaged/bottled water, which are becoming important sources despite highly variable quality and reliability in some places (e.g. Stoler 2017). Better measurement precision is needed to assess the dynamic reliability of water sources in cross-cultural contexts.…”

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“…Explaining what then drives consumption of PDW, if not income, has led to an even more detailed focus on the individual consumer to explain PDW supply. Stoler documents a growing evidence base of micro-consumer studies for West Africa, where an increased specification of who is consuming explains what are identified as "choices" in drinking water as a "budding evidence base regarding microeconomic consumer trends that have helped us better understand who drinks sachet water, where, and what individual level factors shape their choices" [12] (p. 4).…”

“…Stoler highlights variations in quality for sachet water in Accra [13]; Sharma and Bhaduri flag that contamination events are under-reported in Delhi [10]; and online media documents contamination events are still occurring in Indonesian cities [35]. However, over the years, as general conclusions seem to be that quality of PDW is improving through self-regulation of the domestic industry (for Indonesia, see World Bank, 2015 [4]; for West Africa, see Stoler (2017) [12], public health research has highlighted the significance of PDW as form of supply in contexts where it is of superior quality to other "improved" sources. A recent systematic review of global research on PDW water safety concluded PDW products are substantially less likely to be contaminated than alternative water sources for consumption, including piped water [36].…”

“…While public health is unable to ignore the limited options for safe drinking water, given their own research results, they are unable to interrogate the unevenness of choices, or impacts of choices, beyond a frequent reference to the "gap" in provision of piped water. This "gap in service provision" is what both public health researchers and consumer studies often default to for explanations of limited choices [12,26]. For consumer analyses, these gaps in service provision are included through the analysis of the individual-how PDW responds to consumer preferences for water quality, convenience, or perceptions of affordability [32,38].…”

“…Where PDW is studied as a water supply, largely in contexts where access to improved sources is not universal, or safe for drinking, research is overwhelmingly focused on the water quality of this supply [10]. Research on PDW quality has increased awareness of the role of PDW as a source of water supply in contexts where the majority of the world's urban residents live-cities where piped water is not universally accessible, or safe for drinking without prior point of use treatment [11]-and have reinforced the importance of water quality as a dimension of equitable water access [12,13].…”