Water supply issues in the peri-urban (informal) sector

It provides descriptions of the major components of typical systems, and discusses how certain important elements determine whether a system operates successfully or not. Two detailed case studies of peri-urban systems, one in Kathmandu, Nepal, and the other in Khartoum, Sudan, are given to illustrate the diversity of peri- urban water supply configurations and many of the unique problems they face. Many of these unique problems are due to the fact that peri-urban systems are often neither fish nor fowl, in that they are unlike most rural systems -- which are completely physically and often financially independent of any other system -- and unlike most urban systems -- which are inter-tied to a large, often well-supported system which has multiple water sources, physical facilities which provide redundancy in the event of occasional failures, and have vocal and often politically well-connected constituencies which help to insure their successful operation and maintenance. Peri-urban water systems are often those which have little or no legal standing, are supported largely by the informal sector, and receive the lowest priority from the perspective of their primary, and often only water supplier -- often a spur line of the main city water system. Peri-urban areas typically do not have the social and organizational coherence of a rural village, and so may not have any effective formal and informal leadership to take responsibility for insuring the successful operation of their water supply. Beyond simply being ignored by municipal water authorities, peri-urban areas may be actively disassociated from their main source of water, in an effort to discourage further rural-urban migration to that area. Given the increasing emphasis in development circles on providing improved levels of service to rapidly increasing peri-urban populations, there is a need to address the many problems unique to peri-urban water supplies as new WS&S development projects in peri-urban areas are designed. This report is a first step to identify and address some of those problems. (Author abstract)