Access to and factors influencing drinking water and sanitation service levels in informal settlements: Evidence from Kampala, Uganda

Innocent Tumwebaze*, Hakimu Sseviiri, Fred Henry Bateganya, John Twesige, Rebecca Scott, Sam Kayaga, Robinah Kulabako, Guy Howard

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Inequalities in access to safely managed water and sanitation services remain one of the barriers to making urban informal settlements more inclusive and safe areas to live. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDG) agenda provides a new perspective for global monitoring of water and sanitation progress by the United Nations. With a dearth of studies on this development agenda, especially as far as water and sanitation service levels in slums are concerned, our findings are important in contributing to an evidence base from which progress in urban slums could be monitored. Primary data were collected from one of the biggest slums in Kampala city (Kinawataka) using a mixed methods approach. Piped water was the main source of drinking in the community (87%), and most dwellers (85%) were using shared sanitation facilities. Drinking water services were mainly basic (75%) and sanitation services were limited (88%). Only 12% of the water services and 7% of the sanitation services were safely managed. The main factors for service levels included source of drinking water (β = 0.26, p < 0.001) and the user management for sanitation facilities (β = 0.84, p < 0.001). Our study findings suggest that interventions and policies that aim to increase the distribution, reliability, and proximity of piped water to households, and to improve the quality and management of shared sanitation for better hygiene are fundamental to achieving SDG6 in urban slums.
Original languageEnglish
Article number102829
JournalHabitat International
Volume136
Early online date2 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Grant no: ET/T007656/1) awarded under the Global Challenges Research Fund. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by Ksenia Chmutina (Loughborough University) for her participation in the development of the study methodology and tools and review of the manuscript, Joel Kinobe (Makerere University) for the involvement in the development of the study tools as wells in the planning and implementation of data collection. The authors further acknowledge the support provided by the local leaders in the community and city authorities to conduct the study, the research assistants that participated in the collection of data and community residents that participated in the study. Special gratitude to the general beyond the network city project team that was involved in the study.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Grant no: ET/T007656/1 ) awarded under the Global Challenges Research Fund .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Research Groups and Themes

  • Water and Environmental Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Access to and factors influencing drinking water and sanitation service levels in informal settlements: Evidence from Kampala, Uganda'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this