How gender disparities in urban and rural areas influence access to safe drinking water

Urban and rural populations face disparities in gender equality as well as access to safe drinking water, which have deleterious consequences for their well-being. Past studies highlight interdependencies between gender equality and sustainable water management, but they fail to account for effects of shifting urban and rural populations. We find that improved gender equality and access to safe drinking water are likely to persist within urban populations, and empowering women in urban areas could increase access to safe drinking water. Our research aims to enhance the understanding of sustainable provision of water under the circumstances of rapid urbanisation and climate change.     

Accessibility of Services and Facilities for Residents in Public Housing in Urban Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

Against the backdrop of the need to improve accessibility of services and infrastructural facilities for urban residents in Nigeria, this study examined the accessibility of services and facilities for urban residents in newly constructed public housing in Ogun State, Southwest Nigeria. The study was based on household surveys and data were collected from 452 respondents in nine public housing estates constructed between 2003 and 2010 in urban centers in the study area using structured questionnaire and observation schedule. It was observed that although the majority of households in the housing estates have good access to human waste disposal system, accessibility to refuse bins, treated water, electricity, and public transport services as well as educational, shopping, recreational, healthcare, drainage, and other vital facilities is poor. One instructive finding of this study is that more emphasis is given to the production of dwelling units than accessibility to basic services and facilities for residents in public housing schemes in the study area. The paper suggests that to improve the quality of public housing and living standard of residents, policy action is required to compel public housing developers to provide basic services and facilities in housing schemes in Nigerian cities.     

Do residents of Affordable Housing Communities in China suffer from relative accessibility deprivation? A case study of Nanjing

Affordable housing has emerged as a key issue in urban development in a wide range of countries. Themes in research on affordable housing development across the world are reviewed. Affordable Housing Communities for low income households have been built on a large scale in developing countries such as China during the last two decades, mainly in urban fringe areas. Evidence on the impact of the location on access of residents to services is rare. Studying Nanjing, this paper compares spatial access to services between Affordable Housing Communities and Other Housing Communities by measuring distances and imputing walking time between residential land parcels and facilities. Affordable Housing Communities have significantly poorer access than Other Housing Communities, because of poor neighbourhood provision of low order services and poor access to high order services. A household survey of Affordable Housing Communities and Other Housing Communities records the daily lives, degrees of satisfaction and community attachments of residents. Residents in affordable housing have low degrees of satisfaction, weak community attachments and desire to move. The findings emphasize that service provision should be planned to keep pace with Affordable housing construction, so that these communities become better places to live.     

Cost recovery of community-managed piped water systems in Ashanti region, Ghana

Recovering the cost of water services is a major obstacle in achieving a sustainable drinking water supply in developing countries. This paper assesses the levels of cost recovery, household willingness and ability to pay for the full supply cost of water services, and financial management. The study was conducted in five out of 30 community‐managed piped systems in Ashanti region, Ghana. The study shows that the existing tariffs are not sufficient to recover the full supply cost of the service based on the guidelines of the Government Community Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (CWSA). Using 5% of household income as the ability‐to‐pay criteria, 67–87% of the households in the five communities could pay the full supply cost of the service. The poor recovery of the supply cost threatens the long‐term financial sustainability of the small towns' water supply sector.     

Urban homeless shelters in India: Miseries untold and promises unmet

An urban shelter is designed to offer refuge to homeless people and access to basic services like drinking water, sanitation and safety. This research paper aims to critically appraise condition of such shelters, vis-à-vis common services mandated to be provided at each shelter by the Supreme Court of India. A survey of shelters was conducted in four cities of Uttar Pradesh (viz., Allahabad, Varanasi, Lucknow and Agra) spanning a sample of 426 shelter-inmates. Analysis has been done in two stages: evaluation of common services on the basis of their significance as perceived by inhabitants, and assessment of significant services to check their availability and functionality. Factor analysis has clubbed nineteen such services under five factors (named as: entitlement to schemes, hygiene & recreation, cooking support system, ambience, and drinking water & conservancy). Findings reveal large scale unavailability of services and bring to light the appalling condition of shelters in the cities surveyed. This study may be useful in framing a focused policy for providing shelters to homeless people in urban areas by identifying services considered significant by inmates and ensuring availability of such services.     

国外农村饮用水家用简易处理技术装置

针对农村地区供水分散的特点,国外注重发展小型饮用水处理技术,研发出多种家用饮水处理设备,这些设备具有处理效果较稳定、成本低廉、工艺简单、易于操作和维护、无能耗的特点,得到了大力推广和广泛应用,有效提高了农村生活饮用水质.     

Access to infrastructure services: Global trends and drivers

Infrastructure services are essential to human development. Yet, the drivers of service access at a global scale remain largely unexplored. This paper presents trends and global patterns in access to water, sanitation, electricity, and telephony services. Using a panel data set from 1990 to 2010, we empirically explore plausible determinants of access rates to key infrastructure services. Although per-capita GDP is correlated with access rates, access still varies significantly at comparable income levels. Much of this variation is explained by differences in population density. Access levels are higher for urban areas and highest for water, followed by sanitation, electricity, and telephony.     

Backyard shacks,informality and the urban housing crisis in South Africa: stopgap or prototype solution?

Rapid urbanisation in the South has contributed to the growth of informal housing on a large scale. South Africa’s experience is somewhat unusual in that the growth of informality appears to have taken the form of backyard shacks in established townships rather than free-standing shacks in squatter settlements. This is potentially important for household well-being (e.g. better access to services) and for the efficient functioning of urban areas. The paper develops a framework for assessing the impacts and applies it to the country’s leading metropolitan region, Gauteng. It finds that people are slightly better-off in backyards than in shacks elsewhere, although the wider benefits for urban areas are equivocal. In some respects backyard shacks are a stopgap for poor households desperate for somewhere to live. In other respects they represent a kind of prototype solution to the urban housing crisis. The government could do more to improve basic dwelling conditions and to relieve the extra pressure on local services.     

Factors influencing the uptake of household water connections in peri-urban Maputo,Mozambique

Rapid urbanization in many African cities has had a significant impact on the basic water services in peri-urban areas, where providing services can be complex. In the city of Maputo, Mozambique, the initial uptake of new household connections following network construction in peri-urban areas was slow. Focus group discussions with residents and interviews with key actors revealed the importance of offering flexible payment options to the urban poor in order to increase the affordability of connection charges. Although the high connection fee was a constraint, residents were willing to pay if the charges were spread across several monthly installments. These findings suggest that flexible payment arrangements for customers can both bring utility services within reach of low income households and expand the customer base for utility service providers.     

Utility governance,incentives, and performance: Evidence from India's urban water sector

In developing countries, managing trade-offs between socioeconomic and environmental objectives in water utilities is challenging. The Indian water sector suffers from financial losses, lack of access, and poor service quality. We use a stochastic frontier analysis approach to study 304 urban water supply services during 2010–2015. We examine the role of socioeconomic and environmental aspects. Results indicate that water supply exhibits significant inefficiencies and, thus, scope for improvement. Measures to reduce non-revenue water, increase water quality, and improve cost recovery and bill collection, may help induce efficiency. Results also indicate that increasing water supply hours would improve service performance.     

Cities,regions and privatised utilities

Utility networks are physically embedded in places and they also operate within a regulated environment which imposes obligations on them. Within this framework they need to demonstrate commercial success which is directly related to new management strategies that have profound implications for the economic social and environmental performance of localities and regions. Privatisation and liberalisation have heralded a movement from relatively uniform service provision to a utility patchwork with increased variations in tariffs, and styles of service provision. Realisation amongst urban studies and policy makers communities that utility strategies raise important issues for urban and regional development has been slow to emerge. But this is now rapidly changing. Voluntary and community groups and charities have attempted to ensure that low income households gain access to affordable water, heat, light and communication services. Economic development agencies have begun to realise that utilities can act as powerful allies for attracting inward investment. More slowly, they are turning attention to the implications of take-overs and job losses. Environmental groups have recognised the benefits of policies to cut demand and are working with utility companies on energy and water saving strategies. This paper explores the socio-spatial implications of emerging utility strategies within contemporary UK cities.     

Costs of urban utility water connections: Excessive burden to the poor

A global research programme was undertaken to investigate the actual costs and charges of obtaining a water connection in urban areas. Drawing from the Uganda case study, this paper will contribute to the understanding of the enormity of the barriers of the connection process and costs levelled against the urban poor, and the importance of programmes and pricing structures for enabling access to the water supply systems. The researchers found a mean cost of new water connection of US$500 (median of $197). This is unaffordable for $2 per-day-households, which are therefore unable to access the benefits from piped water services.     

Delivering basic infrastructure services to the urban poor: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of bottom-up approaches

In the provision of basic infrastructure services to the urban poor, limited rigorous evidence on the most effective service delivery approaches is available. This meta-analysis synthesises the evidence on the effectiveness of bottom-up approaches that is characterized by the strong involvement of alternate service providers such as NGO's and CBO's in improving access to electricity, water supply, and sanitation services for the urban poor. Although bottom-up approaches are espoused, we find that they do not have a statistically significant effect. This trend was consistent for all dimensions of access: connectivity, affordability, adequacy, and effort and time. However, our findings also show that bottom-up approaches may be more effective in the water and sanitation sectors than in the electricity sector. When bottom-up approaches involve active participation from the community, the results are significantly positive. Our study suggests that innovations to bottom-up approaches that facilitate active community participation can be an effective way to increase access to basic services among the urban poor.     

Urban development in Adana,Turkey, and its environmental consequences

Rapid urbanization without effective management results in natural sources and a substantial part of the urban population being placed at risk from man‐made environmental problems, which become increasingly serious. This paper examines the environmental problems of Adana, the sixth largest and most developed city in Turkey. Adana faced huge problems of water, soil and noise pollution, solid and liquid waste elimination and loss of fertile agricultural areas. Rapid economic development – industrialization, population growth and unplanned urbanization – were determined to be the main causes of these environmental problems. Some recommendations are also made for mitigating and managing these problems in the sustainable urban development perspective.     

Relationships between coastal urbanization and ecosystems in Spain

Coastal regions have long demonstrated growing demographic concentration. This process is of great importance in Spanish coastal zones, where cities develop the majority of economic activities. Moreover, the coastal zone is the region where vulnerable coastal ecosystems are located. This research aims to assess the influence of coastal urban areas on the coastal zone of Spain, which is defined as a social-ecological system. The main goals are focused on defining the Spanish coastal social-ecological system (CSES), analyzing coastal urban areas and their economic activities, and identifying coastal ecosystems linked to coastal urban areas.The results demonstrate that more than 11 million inhabitants are concentrated on the Spanish urban coast, and they develop economic activities related to the coast. Additionally, the results of the research establish the importance of coastal ecosystem services provided to the population. Eighty per cent of coastal urban areas and 90% of population are associated with coastal ecosystems of interest for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).This paper describes the main coastal urban areas in Spain where economic activities and coastal ecosystems converge. Coastal areas with more ecosystem diversity are preferred by the urban society, and therefore, they should have priority for Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) programs.     

Seasonal patterns and socio-economic predictors of household rainwater and greywater use

Seasonal water insecurity is a growing concern in many countries. For some households, rainwater and greywater are important alternative water sources. This study examines household patterns and socio-economic predictors of using rainwater and greywater in urban Philippines, in rainy versus dry seasons. Results from a household survey (N = 396) and in-depth interviews (N = 18) suggest that rainwater and greywater use are widespread, particularly among households with more members, less financial resources, and less access to the public utility, in seasonal ways. Future research into the adoption and diffusion of these practices may inform policies that promote equitable water access year-round.     

Factors influencing selection of drinking water technologies for urban informal settlements in Kampala

Access to drinking water in urban informal settlements of developing countries still remains a challenge for the poor and depends on technology selected. This paper determines the score on criteria used for technology selection by two major stakeholders in the water service delivery chain, the users and the utility. The criteria are: affordability to connect, affordability of consumption, method of payment, ease of operation, ease of spare parts acquisition, access distance, access time, generating sufficient water continuously, service coverage, the possibility of cost recovery and security of installation (SOI). The study was carried out in Bwaise II and Kisenyi III, two informal settlements in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Through a household survey and semistructured interviews of key informants, data were collected for the score on these criteria of four piped water distribution technologies: public water points (PWPs) with conventional meters, PWPs with prepaid meters, house connections and yard taps. Using multicriteria methods and preference elicitation by pair wise ranking, the most preferred factor for technology selection from the users' point of view is affordability to connect, while from the utility's point of view, it is SOI. These preferences were confirmed by data from focus group discussions and in‐depth interviews.     

Life cycle assessment of rainwater harvesting systems for Brazilian semi‐arid households

We assess and compare energy intensities in different setups of Rainwater Harvesting Systems (RHWS), in households located in Brazilian semi‐arid. Life cycle assessment was applied to verify the cumulative energy demand (CED) of systems with different catchment areas and reservoir volumes. The contribution of each component to the energy intensity was considered, as well the feedstock energy of the materials in final waste disposal. None of the evaluated systems were able to meet the total demand for water in a household due production limitations such as catchment area and precipitation. In all RWHS evaluated, the energy intensity was lower than municipality. Larger catchment areas increase productivity and reduce the energy intensity of the systems. Differently, increasing reservoir volume initially reduces energy intensity and reaches an optimal point around 1000–2500 L capacity. The construction phase had more intensity than the use phase.