Waiting at the tap: changes in urban water use in East Africa over three decades

Abstract

This paper reports on changes in water supplies in 16 sites in nine East African urban centres (including Nairobi and Dar es Salaam) between 1967 and 1997. The sites included both low-income and affluent neighbourhoods. In most sites, water supplies had deteriorated. For sites that already had piped water in 1967, most received less water per day in 1997 and had more unreliable supplies. For households without piped supplies, the average time spent collecting water in 1997 was more than three times that in 1967. One of the most notable changes when comparing 1997 to 1967 was the much greater importance of private water vending through kiosks or vendors; these had become a booming business in many of the low- and middle-income sites. But on average, those using kiosks were spending almost 2 hours a day collecting water and the water from kiosks was nearly twice the price of piped supplies.