Income Levels and Patterns of Social and Economic Differentiation

The WSTF aims to make safe water accessible to the urban poor. It will be important, therefore, to establish where within cities and towns the urban poor are living who can be reached by the WSPs, through WSTF-funded projects. A set of descriptions and definitions will have to be prepared on the basis of field visits and discussions with experts and urban residents. These descriptions and definitions should consider the following criteria:

·  Income levels and patterns of social and economic differentiation.

·  History and legal status of the area.

·  Layout of the area and level of planning.

·  Development plans covering/affecting the area.

·  Patterns of land ownership (there has to be sufficient space to construct kiosks and lay the network extensions).

·  Patterns of house ownership.

·  Population density and population size.

·  Current water supply situation.

·  Current sanitation situation.

·  Distance to the distribution network (the area has to be reachable).

·  Sub-centres of main towns should not be overlooked.

1.1  Need for Technical Standards

In order contribute the attainment of the MDGs and to ensure that the human right – access to safe water – is given serious consideration, a set of water supply and sanitation (design) standards have to be developed. These standards should consider;

·  Climatic variations.

·  Variation in the levels of vandalism.

·  Hygienic aspects (can kiosks be kept clean?).

·  Ergonomic aspects and user-friendliness.

·  Technical maintenance and repair.

·  Total and per capita investment costs.

·  Number of users.

·  Coverage requirements.

·  Environmental impact of the WSS infrastructure.

·  Per capita cost of WSTF-funded projects.

·  Coverage and adequate water supply:

1.2  Need for Service Delivery Standards

1.2.1  Coverage

The definition of coverage developed by MWI has to be operationalised in order to calculate coverage levels using the data stored in the pro-poor urban information system.

1.2.2  Mixed Supply Systems

If low-income areas get connected to the water distribution network and supplied through water kiosks, a demand for domestic and commercial connections usually develops quite rapidly. Therefore, when preparing their proposals for the WSTF, WSPs should take such an emerging demand (market) for private connections into account. In other words, the WSTF-funded project should allow for the gradual, demand-driven development of a mixed system; water kiosks and private connections. Adopting a mixed-system approach can have implications for the design of the distribution network (size of pipes, layout of the network, etc.).

·  The WSTF will prepare a text for the WSPs which emphasises the need to take the emerging market for domestic connections into account when preparing their proposal for the WSTF.

1.2.3  Need for Delivery Standards

In addition to observing technical standards related to the water supply infrastructure, the WSP can only improve the water supply situation in low-income areas if it manages to adhere to certain supply, maintenance and customer care standards. Standards have to apply to (have to be developed for) the following:

·  Water quality.

·  Water pressure.

·  Supply hours and water redistribution/rationing procedures.

The maintenance and repair concept.

·  The operation and sustainability of the infrastructure

·  Customer care.

·  Service delivery by the Kiosk Operator.

·  Business hours of kiosks.

2  The Pro-Poor Urban Database/Information System

2.1  Need for a Pro-Poor Information System

A pro-poor urban database is necessary:

·  In order to enable the WSPs to prepare realistic WSS project proposals for specific areas.

·  To allow the WSTF to evaluate and prioritize proposals according to a set of criteria (number of people served, per capita investment cost, current water supply situation, etc.).

·  To evaluate a specific WSTF-funded project and to assess if the project offers value for money.

·  To enable the WSS sector to assess the current WSS situation and the impact of the WSTF-funded project and their contribution to the attainment of the MDGs and the objectives specified in the Visions 2030 document.

These objectives and data uses should guide the development of the approach, methods, techniques and data collection tools.

2.2  Preparatory Activities and Data Collection

The following activities have to be undertaken before data can be collected at town and area level:

·  Prepare descriptions and definitions of low-income areas.

·  Identify which areas are eligible to benefit from WSTF-funded projects.

·  Develop a set of adapted technical and infrastructure management /operation solutions.

·  Develop a area mapping/data collection concept and approach (Who should collect data? Should stakeholders be consulted during the development of the data collection tools? What are the data needs of the various stakeholders?).

·  Develop the data collection methodology and tools.

·  Train the Data Collectors.

·  Test the data collection tools.

·  Evaluate the data collection tools.

·  Prepare the database (data entry programme, user interface, etc.).

·  Scale up the data collection exercise.

·  Establish a helpdesk at the WSTF.

2.3  Contacting Data Experts

In order to ensure that the pro-poor urban information system:

·  is well embedded in and compatible with existing databases,

·  attaints credibility among all stakeholders,

an attempt will be made to involved the following stakeholders in the development of the system:

·  The Central Statistical Office (CSO). The decision to seek the advice of CSO will have to be taken by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

·  The Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB).

·  The Water Services Boards (WSBs).

·  The Water Service Providers (WSPs).

·  UN-habitat (which has developed an information system for a number of western towns, including Kisumu).

·  The possibility for cooperation with the Tanzanian water sector, which aims at creating its own pro-poor urban database/information system, should be examined. For example, the assessment of data needs and the training of data collectors can be done in cooperation with our Tanzanian counterparts.