Moving Forward: Focus on East Africa

Queue at a water point in Kibera, Nairobi. Source: ASA

Although its title indicates a wider remit, this blog has focussed almost exclusively on East Africa and on the informal settlements that exist in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. In this post I want to draw on  Crow and Dill's (2014) paper to explore some recent events in the water governance of these cities and to consider how they relate to my recent thoughts on the inclusion of community actors.

It appears that in the wake of Dar es Salaam's privatisation fiasco its new water body, DAWASCO, has recognised the importance of community strategy for supplying the city's extensive unplanned settlements. Its initial attempt to bring the Hanna Nassif community into governmental discussions as a development actor proved to be a success. But it was difficult to supervise and as such they have since moved on to Water User Associations (WUAs). This new model is based on a similar principle to that discussed in an earlier post, and may fall foul of the same criticisms highlighted by Jaglin (2002).

In Nairobi two schemes have been attempted to extend water and sanitation access in informal settlements. The first, Maji Bora Kibera, sought to regularise the activities of water vendors operating in the city's biggest slum. It had initial success, bringing together 80% of the vendors in an agreement that would see bills paid, leaks reported and corrupt connections with utility plumbers severed. However, in late 2007 the association broken down when the Nairobi police force carried out a series of disconnections across the settlement.

The second scheme discussed by Crow and Dill is a community-based pipe extension project which took its inspiration from a previous project in Kisumu. Whilst reasonable success had been achieved in Kisumu, in Nairobi's Mkuru settlement the incumbent water traders soon gained control of the 'community groups' that were intended to be in charge of the water supply.

These recent proceedings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi hold great relevance to the discussion which has been taking place on this blog. They indicate that there is a movement towards acknowledging the importance of community actors in the water supply of urban areas, but that this movement faces some clear challenges. Not least is that of handing power to the community and ensuring, through sufficient oversight, that the right people benefit.