Drawers of Water II

Collecting water in Nairobi. Source: AFP

Following in the footsteps of its 1967 predecessor, Drawers of Water II provides a much needed thirty year update on the state of domestic water use in East Africa. My interest in this study stems from both its significance for our understanding of urban water access and its attention to Nairobi and to Dar es Salaam — two cities that I have been fortunate enough to spend time in. 

In this blog I’m not going to attempt to give an overview of the study, or a critical analysis of its methods. Instead, I want to explore some of its main findings. Specifically I am going to discuss those disseminated by Thompson et al. (2000), a subsequent article to the main paper that took changes in urban water use as its central concern. I hope that this will give readers a good insight into some of the key issues relating to urban water access. 

Piped vs unpiped supplies — There is a consumption gap. Households with piped supplies are able to access 2.6 times more water than those with unpiped supplies (such as wells or springs). That said, the gap appears to be closing. Back in 1967 it stood at more like 8:1 piped vs unpiped. However, this has less to do with improvements in the latter and more to do with the deterioration of the former…

Declining piped supplies — Municipal piped systems appear to be collapsing in large parts of East Africa. In many cases the physical infrastructure remains functional, but the water services that once sustained urban households are no longer operating. This change has forced people to look elsewhere for their water supplies… 

Rise of private suppliers — In response to the growing demand for off grid water alternatives, kiosks and vendors have emerged across the region. This brings with it a host of new questions about how water is priced and what that means for its uses. A particularly important finding in this regard is that hygiene is one of the first things to suffer under conditions of domestic water scarcity. 

Increased waiting times — Another consequence of the increased dependency on unpiped supplies has been a hike in the time spent waiting at the tap (or well, or kiosk). Thompson et al. reported average return times from the source of 21.4 minutes in 1997 up from 9.3 minutes in 1967. These changes come with a huge opportunity cost for urban inhabitants.

These findings are critical to our understanding of urban water access in East Africa. My only gripe with DWII is that there is little room within the study for a more detailed analysis of how these issues are manifest in particular urban environments. In my next blog I will turn to Crow and Odaba’s (2009) article on Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, in order to contextualise what I have discussed above.