By Urmila Malvadkar*
In the developing world, a lack of sufficient clean water is both a cause and consequence of poverty. Informal settlements—housing up to 60% of the population of some cities in the developing world– face unique obstacles to water access. New infrastructure is difficult to install in dense, unplanned communities. Many governments ignored needs of these communities in order to de-legitimize them and discourage rural-urban migration. Further, residents are often rural migrants who stay for a few years and do not advocate for investing in their community.
Where cities are unwilling or unable to provide water, residents can spend hours a day to purchase water from private vendors who charge 10 to 20 times more than tap water. Some of these vendors in large cities such as Jakarta and Nairobi, have ties to organized crime, collude to cause artificially high prices, refuse to serve certain ethnicities, and threaten utility workers with violence.
While some official policies– even pro-poor policies–can reduce access to water among the very poor, some programs focusing on improving service to the most indigent communities profoundly improve lives.