The 2nd IWA Malaysia Young Water Professionals Conference

Vivatel Kuala Lumpur

17 - 20 MARCH 2015

Amplifying Apartheid: Access to the City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Fault Reporting SystemWesley Hill & Ulrike Rivett

17 MARCH 2015

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STATE OF WATER & SANITATION

• Constitutional right to clean drinking water.

• Inequality of access between rich and poor areas.

• 176 service delivery protests in 2014.

• Service faults can be reported cheaply via SMS.

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APARTHEID ERA SOUTH AFRICA

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DEMOGRAPHICS

Imizamo Yethu

Population Age 65+- 0.6%

Population With Disability

- 3.8% (Provincial total)

Eastern Cape

Population Age 65+- 6.7%

Population With Disability

- 5.8%

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LOCATION OF STUDY SITE

Map courtesy of Google

8Photo courtesy of Author

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METHODS

• 168 Interviews• Randomized With Replacement Sampling

Technique• Obtained Data on…

- Socio-Cultural traits- Use of mobile technology- Access to water & sanitation

• Results Analyzed using Chi-Square

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TRAVEL TIME TO ACCESSIBLE TOILET

- General Population 10 mins.

- Population with Disabilities 14 mins.- Population with Poor Health 15 mins.- Elderly Population 20

mins.FREQUENCY OF TOILET CLEANING

- General Population 25 days

- Population with Disabilities 28 days- Population with Poor Health 35 days

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CONCLUSIONS

- Access to information and communication technology is highly unequal, therefore it is a poor fit for combating unequal access to water and sanitation services.

RECOMMENDATIONS

- Enforcement of disability laws would improve equality of access.

- Develop remote sensing systems to reduce the dependence on user generated fault reports.

- Integrate data collection with the distribution of government grants.

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STEPS TO REDUCE CONSTRUCTION COSTS

• Prioritize universal accessibility from the start of a projects• Focus on a few key features.

- Ramps - Wide doorways- Enlarged toilet cubicles- Avoid hazards to visually impaired people

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GLOBAL RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH

- 66% of the global population will live in cities by 2050.- 90% of the urban growth will take place in Africa and Asia.

- One-fifth of the world's population lives in water scarce environments.

- Another 1.6 billion people face economic water shortage.

- 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide.- Three-quarters of global mobile phone subscriptions are in

developing countries.