USAID Urban Water Services Technical Brief 6

Public water utilities that deliver water to households via piped connections are considered the traditional urban water service delivery model. However, poorer households in urban areas most often access water from utilities via public standpipes, kiosks, or other shared access points, rather than having water available on premises. These communal points are often cheaper to deliver at, but less convenient for households, and only provide water for limited hours. Limiting service hours is a common strategy for utilities to control supply shortages, but it creates water quality problems, increases the household burden of collecting water, and means the household may not have a sufficient quantity of water. Utilities are the key service provider and have the best ability to achieve scale and financial sustainability, but many people do not have access to utility services or these services are insufficient to meet household needs. This is particularly true in peri-urban areas and informal settlements where people are settling the fastest. Insufficient or poor urban water infrastructure creates technical challenges for infrastructure expansion in these areas. As a result, many people in urban areas access drinking water from sources other than utility connections, including decentralized piped water schemes, kiosks, water vendors, and self-supply. Decentralized piped water schemes are operated by private sector entities or community groups, and may be part of the formal municipal services via delegated management agreements or operating outside regulatory frameworks. Kiosks provide access to water for a fee, often including their own borehole for accessing raw water and some level of water treatment. These may be run by non-governmental organizations, community groups, or private entrepreneurs. Water vendors transport water to underserved urban areas, often using tanker trucks, gallons, or sachets. Some urban dwellers elect to use a self-supply approach, where they self-finance and manage their own source of water. These different service providers are an important and indispensable source of water for unconnected residents in many cities, but if not properly regulated, they can create water quality and affordability issues for consumers. Poor consumers who rely on these unregulated providers often pay far more for water, requiring a large portion of their daily wages. These providers can also create risks to groundwater resources, as abstraction by these providers is often unregulated. The global urban population is expanding rapidly, especially in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2018, an estimated 4 billion people, or 55 percent of the global population, lived in urban areas. Currently, 60 million new residents move to urban areas every year. Much of this growth is happening through the expansion of metropolitan areas and secondary cities, especially in unplanned, informal settlements that lack basic services. Precise numbers are difficult to determine, but it is estimated that more than one in four urban residents live in informal settlements, amounting to over 1 billion people with inadequate housing, limited access to basic services, and lacking land tenure security. Rapidly growing small towns are also creating new challenges in service delivery. While global statistics show that urban populations are far more likely to have sewer connections and piped water, these figures mask significant disparities between rich and poor. And, while rural access to drinking water has improved steadily since 1990, urban access has stagnated or improved only marginally, even falling in some places. In sub-Saharan Africa, access to piped water in urban areas increased in absolute numbers, but the percent of the urban population served with piped water declined from 40 percent to 33 percent. In a dramatic example, access to piped water in urban areas declined from 32 percent in 1996 to 7 percent in 2015 in Nigeria. The pressures created by climate change, aging infrastructure, and increasing demand from a growing urban population are putting even more strain on urban water services. Urban water service delivery models are often fragmented, with people relying on multiple sources for water. Public water utilities are the traditional urban water service delivery model, but poorer households in urban areas often access water from utilities via public standpipes, kiosks, or other shared access points. Kiosks provide access to water for a fee, often including their own borehole for accessing raw water and some level of water treatment. These may be run by non-governmental organizations, community groups, or