Basic services
Without piped water, a toilet and electricity, a house is not much more than a shelter. Besides this many slum dwellers face a lack of sewerage and solid waste collection. They go without the basic services that are vital for a decent and healthy life.
Cape Town
In the Philippi suburbs 52% of the people have flush toilets connected to the sewage system; the other half depends on unhygienic community toilets that are facilitated by the government. On average ten families need to share one toilet. Although free water was introduced in 1999 for every family in Philippi, not every family has piped water at home. Many people need to line up to fetch water from community taps. Electricity is only available to 52% of the people in Philippi. Only 58% of the families have their solid waste collected by the local authority once a week. The remaining waste piles up and scatters throughout the neighbourhood which forms another burden to the hygiene and health conditions of the community. Refuse collection and cleansing are major challenges in Philippi given the high settlement densities in key areas and the narrow access within the area.
San Salvador
In Soyapango and Mejicanos basic services are poor. Few people have drinking water in their homes; even less have sewerage at home. In some settlements there aren’t even open sewages to drain rainwater. Electricity often fails in the informal settlements. The private company that supplies electricity fails to maintain the network. Street lighting should be installed or improved for security. As a positive exception to the rule, solid waste is collected in most informal settlements in San Salvador, unlike in most slums around the world. However dumpsites within the settlement do still exist. Most families have built dry-pit latrines, which contaminate and saturate the soils and the environment. Only a minimum percentage of the houses have septic pits for sewage disposal.
Kisumu
The population of Kisumu has increased rapidly over the last decades, especially in the slum areas. Basic services fall short of needs. About 60 percent of the population has no piped water; these people rely on water vendors, rivers, the lake and shallow wells. The sewage system of Kisumu serves only 10 percent of the population. The high water tables make it difficult to construct proper latrines, which put shallow wells under constant threat of contamination. Most people have to use public pit latrines, which are poorly constructed and too little in number. Fecal disposal is often done in little plastic bags, called ‘flying toilets’. Kisumu generates 500.000 tons of solid waste a year; only 20 percent is collected. As a result health conditions have declined in Kisumu over the last twenty years, particularly in the slums.
Current Action
Different actors are working on improving the situation with regard to basic services in the three Urban Matters cities. In many countries basic services delivery largely depends on government agencies or public sector enterprises, but since basic service delivery has been privatized in many countries, it is important to take these actors into account as well. To get a better understanding of the dynamics, below we will give some more information on the current action in each of these cities.
Cape Town
City Councils in South Africa are trying to provide basic services to all residents, including free services to a number of poor. But all the same, there is a significant lack of investment in urban infrastructure over the past twenty years. This has resulted in a severe crisis, where the government is unable to meet the need for water and electricity, there is an urgent need for investments, innovative approaches and renewable energy. The city as the responsible agency regarding solid waste management has tried a number of approaches to improving this service but it is accepted that there is considerable space for development in this area.
San Salvador
In El Salvador the Ministry of Public works, Housing and Urban Development is the most important policy maker in basic services. In the current housing policy basic services for the poor have a high priority. The ministry focuses on finding funds and has secured a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for programs supplying drinking water and sewage.
The slum dwellers of San Salvador have been negatively affected by privatization of basic services: the Electricity Company CAESS is obliged by law to improve the network every five years, but they do not prioritize poor settlements and work very slow. In El Salvador government-funded construction works are carried out by private companies, after public tendering. Tenders are judged on financial criteria, not on criteria of community participation. The government only welcomes participatory processes if they don’t delay construction. Unfortunately this is not a good start for integrated slum development.
Kisumu
In Kenya, the Kisumu City Council is also backlogging severely, but it has taken up an ambitious development strategy, including water and sewage for slum areas. As in San Salvador, in Kisumu the effect of privatization is felt: since 2003 the private enterprise Kiwasco is responsible for maintenance and extension of the city’s water system, but it delivers to only 40 percent of the population. Different water and sanitation projects are executed in Kisumu, but there are gaps needing further investment, such as the building of a dam and a waste water treatment plant.