Ending the ‘Urban W+S Divide’ by Serving the Poor

Abstract

Once the upper and middle classes are covered with W+S services by utilities through household connections for water and a chain for sanitation (either piped or onsite), progress in access tends to come to a hold in the low-income countries. The reason for this is that serving the poor is a particular challenge for utilities and regulators. Hence, reaching universal access to safe W+S needs rethinking and more attention for urban low-income areas. Stakeholders in the sector need to build more knowledge on how to reach the poor sustainably. A pro-poor orientation has to be streamlined in all six crucial factors. Furthermore, all (three) service levels have to respond to minimum requirements of human rights in order to end the discrimination of the urban poor. Utilities have to have different strategies (as proposed) for the different types of low-income areas. Main challenges are to protect infrastructure from vandalism, control water loses and at the same time offer a mix of service levels which can secure universal access in all transitional phases. For sanitation, the differences between the approaches proposed by public health officers and urban W + S specialists are indicated and a strategy for a goal-oriented sanitation strategy is briefly outlined.