PROVISION OF WATER TO THE POOR IN AFRICA

# Mobile vendors

Although mobile vendors do not represent a significant source of water for the unconnected in most African countries, they do serve a significant portion of urban households in some African countries.<sup>11</sup> For two-thirds of the African countries surveyed, less than 1 percent of the urban population reports that they purchase from vendors, although, as noted, this likely represents only a portion of the informal water market. There are exceptions, however. In Mauritania, 32 percent of urban residents purchase water from mobile vendors, and in Khartoum, 60 percent of the population is served by water tankers. Cities in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania also had more than 5 percent of households reporting they were dependent on vendors. The estimates of coverage are based on household surveys or calculated indirectly to determine coverage from the sources. The literature shows little quantitative data on the different ways water carters get their water and their different prices. Water vendors often provide water to communities situated a long distance from the network and to informal settlements where private connections and standpipes have not been installed (Kariuki and others 2003).

Water truckers often supply mostly upper- and middle-income households. They are especially present in cities where the piped water service is very poor, both in terms of reliability and extension of the network, such as in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Kampala. Half of the cities considered in the study have mobile distribution for water, but coverage is relatively limited to a small percentage of the population, from 0.24 percent to 6.5 percent (see table 1.3). In other cities, such as Accra and Luanda, water tankers supply directly to upper- and middle-income households but also play a key role in the supply chain. Due to the limited extension of the piped water network, a great part of the kiosks depend on water supplied by tankers. In fact, in informal settlements of Accra, 70 percent of the water bought in kiosks comes from water tankers (Sarpong and Abrampah 2006). In the case of Luanda in the mid- to late-1990s, the majority of the population (between 70 and 100 percent) living in peri-urban areas purchased water from water vendors that sold from household water tanks usually filled by water tankers (Development Workshop 1995).

# Small-scale independent providers

There are small secondary water networks operated by small-scale independent providers (SSIPs) in almost 40 percent of the cities in the study. These may be connected to the main city network, as in Nairobi, Cotonou, and Abidjan, or completely separate from the city network, as in Kampala, Nairobi, and Maputo. However, the coverage of small secondary water networks is in general low—only 12 percent in Maputo and 9 percent in Nairobi (table 4). Those that are not connected to the utility’s network, but rather to independent boreholes, are referred to here as “independent standpipes/kiosks.” These have emerged in peri-urban areas that are less densely populated and often out of reach of the utility’s water network. Although they are not prevalent in any African city, independent standpipes/kiosks appear to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the informal water market.<sup>12</sup> This source often offers consumers a 11 Although not specified in the DHS, this category is often associated with mobile water sources.

12 Of 19 AICD cities, 8 reported some standpipes connected to independent systems. In five cities (Maputo, Nairobi, Kaduna, Maseru, and Lusaka), this service caters to a minority of the overall urban population. In Kinshasa, Dar es Salaam, and Khartoum all or most standposts use groundwater that is independent from the utility network.

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