What’s so special about the urban?

In class we have been asked to set up individual blogs exploring a topic related to the theme of water and development in Africa. I have been fascinated by urban spaces for a while and I was thus immediately drawn to the topic of urban water and sanitation. This first post contains my very initial exploration and attempt to understand some of the urban conditions that impact water and sanitation issues in Africa. I set out to highlight some of the main insights from the paper by Thompson et al. (2000), which reports on changing water supplies in urban areas across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda during the period 1967-1997. Secondly, I hope to further contextualise some of those insights against the backdrop of Sean Fox’s (2011) article that more broadly explores Africa’s urban transition in the late 20^th century.

The research by Thompson et al. (2000) is a repeat study exploring domestic water use in urban areas in East Africa. By comparing results from the original research, Drawers of Water (White etal., 1972), the authors examine changes across three decades. A key finding in the research is the decline in domestic water use in piped households in East Africa, which almost halved between 1967 and 1997(from an average per capita of 124.3 litres per day to an average per capita of 64.2 litres per day). The decline is accompanied by worsening water reliability, and both changes are linked to lack of maintenance and increased stress on the system due to urban population growth. This is a straightforward argument, but I have dwelled a bit on the urbanisation process in an attempt to better understand the context within which the issues of water and sanitation play out. According to Fox(2011) urban transition in Africa during the second half of the 20^th century has been characterised by unprecedented rates of urban population growth alongside limited economic growth – a situation which has puzzled especially economists who traditionally have seen urbanisation as a by-product of economic growth. The bulk of Fox’s (2011) article deals with alternative ways of explaining the phenomenon of African ‘urbanisation without growth’. I do not want to go too much into those arguments here, but instead suggest that when considering the issue of urban water and sanitation this context of population growth and economic stagnation should be kept in mind.

Another insightful understanding developed in the Thompson et al. (2000) article is linked to change in water sources among unpiped households in urban areas. The authors suggest three categories of water sources:

1. Unprotected sources (e.g. lakes, rivers, surface water)
2. Protected or improved sources (e.g. well pumps or hydrants)
3. Private sources (e.g. kiosks and vendors)

In the thirty years between the two studies the number of households obtaining water from improved water sources decreased from 77 per cent to 56 per cent due to lack of maintenance and privatization of public water sources. Since the urban environment is characterised by less unprotected sources compared to rural areas, the third category, private water sources, has come to play an increasing role in urban water supply. The consequences of this change are something I want to look more into in a later post.   

Before drawing this post to a close, I want to highlight two understandings. First, when considering issues of urban water and sanitation, we should keep in mind the distinct urban transition that has occurred in Africa (as the blog progresses I hope to narrow down my geographical focus, and thus be able to consider an even more place specific context, as a continent scale is far from ideal (!)). Second, private water sources are increasingly important in urban areas due to changing access to protected sources, but also partly due to the comparatively lower access to unprotected sources, which characterise cities. The geography of the urban thus influences the access to water sources.