Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

1 7 2 / C H A L L E N G E S T O L I F E A N D W E L L - B E I N GCities: Competing Needs in an Urban EnvironmentBox 7.3: Inadequacies in provision for water and sanitation in cities in Kenya and theUnited Republic of TanzaniaA report in 1994 stated that 55 percent of Nairobi’s (Kenya)population lived in informal settlements that are squeezedonto less than 6 percent of the city’s land area. Only 12percent of plots in these settlements have piped supplies.Most people have to obtain water from kiosks. A surveyfound that 80 percent of households complained of watershortages and pipes running dry. This same surveysuggested that 94 percent of the inhabitants of informalsettlements do not have access to adequate sanitation.Only a minority of dwellings have toilets. Significantproportions of the total population have no access toshowers and baths, and in most areas drainage isinadequate (Alder, 1995). Kibera is the largest low-incomeurban area in Nairobi, covering an area of 225 hectareswith an estimated population of 470,000. Traditional pitlatrines are the only excreta-disposal system available, anda high proportion of households have no toilet within orclose to their home. There are often up to 200 persons perpit latrine. Pits fill up quickly and emptying is a problem due43 percent having a house connection or yard tap and 21 percentrelying on public taps (see figure 7.2). If the definition of ‘adequateprovision for water’ were to be set as a house connection or yardtap, then more than half the population in these cities hasinadequate provision (Hewett and Montgomery, 2001).Sanitation provisionSafe and convenient sanitationDetailed city studies show that a large proportion of the populationthat has ‘improved’ sanitation does not have safe, convenientsanitation. The cities listed in boxes 7.2 and 7.3 are among thelargest in each of their countries. However, provision for sanitationis worse in smaller urban centres than in the larger cities so the gapbetween those with ‘improved’ sanitation and ‘safe, convenient’sanitation may be even larger here. Many city studies in otherAfrican nations also suggest that the proportion of people withsafe, convenient sanitation is much lower than the proportion with‘improved’ sanitation (Hardoy et al., 2001).The 2000 Assessment’s statistics for sanitation for forty-threeof Africa’s large cities showed that 19 percent of the populationto difficult access. Space to dig new pits is often notavailable (WHO, 1996). For the whole of Nairobi, only40 percent of households are connected to sewers (Mosha,2000).In the United Republic of Tanzania, more than60 percent of communities in Dar es Salaam live in areaswith minimal or no infrastructure such as water supply,sanitation and drainage (Mazwile, 2000). Only a smallproportion of the population of the country’s largest citieshave sewage connections (Shayo Temu, 2000). 83 percentof households in Dar es Salaam use pit latrines amongwhich 10 percent have septic tanks and 6 to 7 percenthave sewers; the sewage network covers only the centralpart of the city and a small section outside the centre.The system is old and unreliable, owing to deferredmaintenance (Mosha, 2000). Many Tanzanian cities hadwater available for only a few hours a day on average,ranging from Dodoma (7 hours) to Singida (2 hours),(Njau, 2000).remains unserved (see figure 7.2). Among these populations, only18 percent have toilets connected to sewers, a very low proportionas confirmed by an analysis of the Demographic and Health Surveyssuggesting that a mere 25 percent of Africa’s urban population hasaccess to toilets connected to sewers (Hewett and Montgomery,2001). This conclusion is also supported by statistics on theproportion of households with sewer connections in the largest cityin each African nation. In most of these cities, less than 10 percentof the population has sewer connections while in many, includingAbidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Asmara (Eritrea),Brazzaville (Congo), Cotonou (Benin), Kinshasa (Congo), Libreville(Gabon), Moroni (Comoros), N’Djamena (Republic Of Chad),Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and less than 2 percent haveconnections (WHO/UNICEF, 2000).Toilet useIn most urban settings, shared toilets and pit latrines are notadequate to fulfil the primary health function of a toilet – to ensurethe safe disposal of human excreta so it does not contaminatehands, clothes, water or food and is inaccessible to flies and otherdisease vectors. If the only available toilets are shared, they will not