Publication: Citywide Inclusive Water Supply: Adopting Off-Grid Solutions to Achieve the SDGs
Date
2019-06
ISSN
Published
2019-06
Author(s)
Misra, Smita
Kingdom, Bill
Abstract
Today about 676 million urban residents,
many of them poor, do not have access to the Joint
Monitoring Programme (JMP) definition of "safely
managed" water supplies. They receive an off-grid water
supply service that is not safely managed, accessible, or
affordable, and thus not compliant with Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) 6.1. If the rate of providing piped
supplies over the last 15 years continues for another 15
years, and the urban population increases as projected by
1.2 billion, then the current 676 million will be joined by
a further 300 million by 2030. Therefore, by 2030, nearly 1
billion individuals, primarily in South Asia and Sub-Saharan
Africa, will be forced to rely on off-grid supplies that are
not safely managed. These troubling numbers exclude the
significant population classified as rural but live on the
periphery of urban areas and have urban characteristics and
aspirations. Not only are off-grid customers increasing but
they are also concentrated in the poorer segments of
society. An analysis of 75 low-income countries (LICs) in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America shows that more than 68
percent of these customers come from the bottom two wealth
quintiles (the poor and the poorest). Within these regions,
many countries (24 of these 75 countries) have more than 80
percent such off-grid users from poor and poorest
categories. The sector's single-minded focus on piped
service delivery is insufficient to meet the challenges of
providing safe water supplies due to endemic governance,
efficiency, and financing challenges. These problems,
coupled with policy, land tenure, and related issues in the
broader urban environment, all conspire to leave poor
households without access to piped water supplies—a problem
that will continue. A laissez-faire attitude prevails in the
sector, leaving off-grid customer to fend for themselves.
Traditional (piped) solutions alone will not achieve SDG 6.1
by 2030 in providing safely managed water that is accessible
at the household level and is affordable to customers. It is
critical to re-examine the traditional focus on adding piped
connections. Policy makers and others in the sector should
explore how off-grid solutions could be
"reimagined" as a complementary solution.
Citation
“Misra, Smita; Kingdom, Bill. 2019. Citywide Inclusive Water Supply; Citywide Inclusive Water Supply : Adopting Off-Grid Solutions to Achieve the SDGs. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32046 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”