One characteristic of most Indian slums is their inadequate access to water, which has a serious impact on the health of its residents. Most of the research on water service delivery in slums until recently has focused on water quality and health outcomes, especially diarrhoeal illnesses. However, there are very few studies that address the relative importance of quality as compared to other water service indicators such as quantity, reliability, access or non-health related outcomes resulting from inadequate service delivery among slum populations.
The paper titled 'Multidimensional measurement of household water poverty in a Mumbai slum: Looking beyond water quality' published in the journal PLOS ONE, describes the findings of a study conducted in Kaula Bandar (KB), a slum in Mumbai, that aimed at measuring deficiencies in a broad array of water service delivery indicators and their adverse life impacts on the slum residents.
Data for the study was obtained from six focus group discussions and 40 individual qualitative interviews as well as a structured survey of 521 households in the slum to get quantitative information on water indicators such as quantity, access, price, reliability, and equity.
Since Kaula Bandar slum is 'non-notified'--meaning not recognised by the city, state, or central governments--the community is denied legal access to most public services such as electricity, sanitation and water. Toilets at the household level are nonexistent while only a few pay-for-use toilet blocks are available. A large proportion of adults in the slum engage in open defecation. The slum reports high infant mortality, child undernutrition, and illiteracy rates as compared to most other slums in Mumbai.
Two-thirds of households in the slum purchase water through an informal distribution system run by private vendors. They draw water from underground water pipes in the city by using motorised pumps to suck water into hoses that travel hundreds of meters to reach slum lanes. Residents pay on a monthly basis to access water from these hoses, that too for only two hours a day most of the time. Residents have to line up in the lanes at specific times to access a hose. The remainder of the households purchase water from taps located in other slums by paying the tap 'owners' (usually occupants of a nearby household) a specified amount to fill in containers that they roll from long distances to bring water to their houses.
Every few months, government officials raid and confiscate the motorised pumps. During these periods, all get water by rolling containers to fill them from taps outside the slum. Private tankers are also hired to bring water occasionally.
<p>Water service delivery failures not only had a negative impact on household economy, but even employment, education, health, quality of life, social relationships, community cohesion, and people’s sense of political inclusion.</p>
Quantitative data revealed that the price of water was strongly associated with use of inadequate water quantity. Water service delivery failures and their adverse impacts varied based on whether households fetched water or had informal water vendors delivering it to their homes.
The paper ends by arguing that failure to evaluate non-health outcomes may underestimate the high proportion of deprivation resulting from inadequate water service delivery among people in slums. It also outlines a multidimensional definition of household “water poverty” that it argues would encourage policymakers and researchers to look beyond evaluating water service delivery inadequacies in the context of water quality and health.
Please download a copy of the paper below.