IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v42y2005i8p1247-1274.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Universal (Non)service? Water Markets, Household Demand and the Poor in Urban Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Sumila Gulyani

    (Department of Urban Planning, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA, sumila.gulyani@columbia.edu)

  • Debabrata Talukdar

    (School of Management, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA, dtalukda@buffalo.edu)

  • R. Mukami Kariuki

    (Water and Energy Department, The World Bank, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, rkariuki@worldbank.org)

Abstract

Compared with the non-poor, just how inadequately are the urban poor served by the public utilities and private water providers? Based on a survey of 674 households, this paper examines current water use and unit costs in three Kenyan towns and also tests the willingness of the unconnected to pay for piped water or improved kiosk service. By examining the water use behaviour of poor and non-poor households, this study brings into question a long-standing notion in the literature-that only the poor are underserved, use little water and pay a lot for it. It also indicates that the standard prescription to 'price water and create water markets' is in itself insufficient to improve service delivery and that kiosks are not always a good solution for serving the poor.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumila Gulyani & Debabrata Talukdar & R. Mukami Kariuki, 2005. "Universal (Non)service? Water Markets, Household Demand and the Poor in Urban Kenya," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1247-1274, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:42:y:2005:i:8:p:1247-1274
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980500150557
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980500150557
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980500150557?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chris Shugart, 1991. "An Exploratory Study of the Water Standpipe-Vendor System in Jakarta," Development Discussion Papers 1991-15, JDI Executive Programs.
    2. Briscoe, John, et al, 1990. "Toward Equitable and Sustainable Rural Water Supplies: A Contingent Valuation Study in Brazil," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(2), pages 115-134, May.
    3. Whittington, Dale & Lauria, Donald T. & Mu, Xinming, 1991. "A study of water vending and willingness to pay for water in Onitsha, Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 179-198.
    4. Whittington, Dale & Mu, Xinming & Roche, Robert, 1990. "Calculating the value of time spent collecting water: Some estimates for Ukunda, Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 269-280, February.
    5. Crane, Randall, 1994. "Water markets, market reform and the urban poor: Results from Jakarta, Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-83, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Talukdar, Debabrata, 2018. "Cost of being a slum dweller in Nairobi: Living under dismal conditions but still paying a housing rent premium," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 42-56.
    2. Sima, Laura C. & Kelner-Levine, Evan & Eckelman, Matthew J. & McCarty, Kathleen M. & Elimelech, Menachem, 2013. "Water flows, energy demand, and market analysis of the informal water sector in Kisumu, Kenya," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 137-144.
    3. Gazzeh, Karim & Abubakar, Ismaila Rimi, 2018. "Regional disparity in access to basic public services in Saudi Arabia: A sustainability challenge," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 70-80.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Georg Meran & Markus Siehlow & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2021. "Pipes, Taps, and Vendors: An Integrated Water Management Approach," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 1-29, October.
    2. Meran, Georg & Siehlow, Markus & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2018. "Pipes, Taps and Vendors: Managing and Regulating the Unconnected Water Market," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181584, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Anthony Amoah & Peter G. Moffatt, 2017. "Estimating demand for reliable piped-water services in urban Ghana: An application of competing valuation approaches," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2017-01, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    4. Céline Nauges & Dale Whittington, 2010. "Estimation of Water Demand in Developing Countries: An Overview," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 25(2), pages 263-294, August.
    5. Orgill-Meyer, Jennifer & Jeuland, Marc & Albert, Jeff & Cutler, Nathan, 2018. "Comparing Contingent Valuation and Averting Expenditure Estimates of the Costs of Irregular Water Supply," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 250-264.
    6. Van Houtven, George L. & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. & Usmani, Faraz & Yang, Jui-Chen, 2017. "What are Households Willing to Pay for Improved Water Access? Results from a Meta-Analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 126-135.
    7. John P. Hoehn & Douglas J. Krieger, 2000. "An Economic Analysis of Water and Wastewater Investments in Cairo, Egypt," Evaluation Review, , vol. 24(6), pages 579-608, December.
    8. Anand Asthana, 1997. "Where the Water is Free but the Buckets are Empty: Demand Analysis of Drinking Water in Rural India," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 137-149, April.
    9. Yusep Suparman & Henk Folmer & Johan H.L. Oud, 2016. "The willingness to pay for in-house piped water in urban and rural Indonesia," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 407-426, June.
    10. Wutich, Amber & Beresford, Melissa & Carvajal, Cinthia, 2016. "Can Informal Water Vendors Deliver on the Promise of A Human Right to Water? Results From Cochabamba, Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 14-24.
    11. A O Nyong & P S Kanaroglou, 1999. "Domestic Water Demand in Rural Semiarid Northeastern Nigeria: Identification of Determinants and Implications for Policy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(12), pages 2127-2144, December.
    12. Heinrich Zozmann & Alexander Morgan & Christian Klassert & Bernd Klauer & Erik Gawel, 2022. "Can Tanker Water Services Contribute to Sustainable Access to Water? A Systematic Review of Case Studies in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-27, September.
    13. M. Genius & E. Hatzaki & E. Kouromichelaki & G. Kouvakis & S. Nikiforaki & K. Tsagarakis, 2008. "Evaluating Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Improved Potable Water Quality and Quantity," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 22(12), pages 1825-1834, December.
    14. Ojeda, Monica Ilija & Mayer, Alex S. & Solomon, Barry D., 2008. "Economic valuation of environmental services sustained by water flows in the Yaqui River Delta," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 155-166, March.
    15. Moreno-Sanchez, Rocio & Maldonado, Jorge Higinio & Wunder, Sven & Borda-Almanza, Carlos, 2012. "Heterogeneous users and willingness to pay in an ongoing payment for watershed protection initiative in the Colombian Andes," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 126-134.
    16. Engel, Stefanie & Iskandarani, Maria & Useche, Maria del Pilar, 2005. "Improved water supply in the Ghanaian Volta Basin: who uses it and who participates in community decision-making?," EPTD discussion papers 129, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Russell, Clifford S. & Vaughan, William J. & Clark, Christopher D. & Rodríguez, Diego J. & Darling, Arthur H., 2001. "Investing in Water Quality: Measuring Benefits, Costs and Risks," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 297.
    18. Anthony Amoah & Peter G. Moffatt, 2021. "Willingness to pay for reliable piped water services: evidence from urban Ghana," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 805-829, October.
    19. Agha Akram & Sheila Olmstead, 2011. "The Value of Household Water Service Quality in Lahore, Pakistan," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 173-198, June.
    20. Nick Johnstone & Libby Wood & Robert Hearne, 1999. "Private sector participation in urban water and sanitation: Realising social and environmental objectives in developing countries," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(4), pages 287-302, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:42:y:2005:i:8:p:1247-1274. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.