W3 - Infrastructure provision and key urban services Flashcards
(27 cards)
List 6 key urban services critical to human/economic development
(Safe drinking) water
Sanitation
Energy
Solid waste management
Transport
Telecommunications and internet
Give an overview of the case for improving urban services
Lower levels of quality of service provision than in GN
2 characteristics of slums relate to water/sanitation
Better services mean better household incomes, education and equality for women - women fetch water
What are the 5 challenges of delivery of services in GS?
1) Rapid and geographically expansive urban growth faster than service provision
2) Collective action failure at community level
3) Supply constraints - Cost and technical difficulties
4) Demand constraints - Can’t afford to pay
5) Institutional and political constraints: governance failures, lack of cooperation between local governance, influence of informal economy actors
- the ideal of GN infrastructure may not be ideal
Give an overview of changing frameworks for urban service delivery
Urban services can be seen as common
resource, natural monopoly, public or private goods - so waste collection may be better suited for private sector than sanitation
Initially state led approaches to market led, to many different models
- commodification vs basic needs/human rights (water etc)
Poorest districts most affected by lack of services - lack of viability for private, lack of political will from local gov
What is SDG 6 and its current status?
SDG 6 - seeks to ensure the availability and
sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all
Not on track
What are the regional disparities of safe drinking water and sanitation?
Much more urban people have access to water services than rural, but access is still patchy
Same thing but much more similar in %, in S Asia only 25% of urban pop has access
define sanitation and the benefits of improving it
- the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces (WHO)
Improving has benefits on health in households and communities
- conditions of sanitary workers
- sanitation related violence against women
What are the 3 challenges of supplying potable water?
1) Finite/vulnerable resource
2) Competing demands with agriculture using 70% of freshwater
3) Expensive infrastructure
Give a brief overview of water scarcity and an overview of the conflicts caused by water scarcity
25% of world pop exposed to high annual water stress, climate change poses risk to social stability but water scarcity does prompt self sufficiency
Conflicts
Competing uses from local to international level
Geographical conflicts Dam to divert rivers from rural to large cities, eg. India blocking dam to cut off water access in Pakistan
Privatisation to make more efficient use of water - but social equity tensions
What is the political economy of access to water
1) Rights bases access - although doesn’t always mean guaranteed access
2) Illegal access
3) Structural mechanisms of access - tech, capital, authority
so access is constrained by variety of factors
Give an overview of the shifting models of water supply provision
Water has been free for so long, since 80’s move to water being seen as an economic good so privatisation - PE firm buying Nestles water unit. Since 2000’s criticism of privatisation so movement toward derivatisation
Outline the arguments for and against prevision of water
For
- Efficiency and economic stability due to natural monopoly (though makes competition in the market impossible)
- Fosters access when governments are non performing
Depends upon point: needs strong regulation by independent regulators
Against
- Tension between water as a human rights and economic good
- Issues of access/affordability for the poor
Possible solution of tradeable water rights
Privatisation as red herring as only 5% of access is privatised and many issues of privatisation can occur with public and vice versa
Give the example of privatisation in Bolivia 1997-2001
Big bang model, entire city privatised for 40 years so exclusive control, driven by WB IMF
Steep rise of prices led to protest, then water war in 2000, one death so reversed privatisation
WB then said privatisation in not a panacea
Give a brief view of the demands of water justice movement
1) widen access
2) Formally codify water rights eg. Egypt in constitution
3) Improve social power in decision making
What is the view on remunicipalisation
Wave of taking back public control of water since 2010 eg. Accra, a policy option to stay
What are the informal/community modes of water provision and its limitations?
Informal
- illegal pirate connections to main pipes
- illegal pumping/sale of groundwater
Community
- Community ownership - water cooperatives
- community led governance - sharing irrigation water
Limitations - 3 assumptions
1) community management implies greater accountability
2) correct organisational form gives desirable outcomes
3) communities can solve all water-related problems
4) No account taken of reasons government and industry promote community
involvement - shifting cost burden? PR?
5) Romanticising/essentialising of ‘community’ against reality of partial citizenship
What are some community alternatives to providing sanitation?
Low cost micro level solutions eg. sceptic tank
Limitations due to implementation challenges
- affordability vs acceptability challenge
- collective action challenge
What is the physical accessibility issue in informal settlements?
- Lack of maintained roads and transport options with issues of time, costs, and safety for women
What are the 4 types of urban passenger transport?
1) Private non/motorised transport
2) Formal public transport
3) Informal collective transport
Give an overview of private motorised transport
overall growth of cars, very unevenly distributed - impact on air pollution so health
Increasing demand for motorised transport and poor public transport leads to circular feedback
Give an overview of formal public transport
Train less prevalent but BRT is more popular
Give an overview of informal collective transport with advantages and disadvantages
Demand responsive offered by self organised operators that are not regulated - like the taxis in Mauritius.
Informal is the norm, makes up most motorised trips in Africa, but its literature is disproportionately small.
Positives:
- High fq, high coverage and adaptable services supporting employment
- Mittel et al found informal self organises at better efficiency levels that centralised services
Negatives:
- Service inefficiency
- Poor road safety and pollution and labour conditions
- Cartels can lobby against providing more efficient public transport
Brief overview of whether we should formalise?
One extreme, gov bans informal systems to transition to bus systems. On the other, bottom up solutions emerge.
Give the example of Bus Rapid Transit in Colombia in 1999 and its diffusion and success
Transmilenio project as a public-private partnership with dedicated bus corridors with high capacity connecting with feeder bus systems with parallel cycle paths.
Implemented in China and SA.
SA only had 10% of Bogotas capacity
Costly infrastructure, only works well with high passenger volumes
Physical/technical/political constaints
Depends on socioeconomic conditions
