Expanding safe water and waste management service access to off-grid urban populations in Africa

根据世卫组织/联合国儿童基金会的数据，2015年，撒哈拉以南非洲91.8%的城市家庭可以获得管道或受保护的地下水资源，但只有46.2%的家庭在需要时可以获得安全管理的水。供应商在供应城市离网人口方面发挥了关键作用，在SSA，瓶装水或袋装水（小袋水，500毫升塑料袋装的水）的消费量不断增长。虽然有几项研究表明，瓶子和袋子通常没有粪便污染，但鉴于许多离网的城市人口缺乏固体废物处理服务，当人们饮用这种水时，可能会出现处理塑料袋和瓶子的问题。该项目旨在提供证据，说明人们向离网人口出售水的不同方式，以及这对塑料废物管理的意义。我们计划在加纳做这件事，那里的大多数城市家庭现在都喝袋装水，相比之下，肯尼亚政府已经禁止使用塑料袋。通过这种方式，我们希望通过支持水销售者和废物收集者填补市政服务的空白，扩大城市离网人口获得安全用水和废物管理服务的机会。这两个国家（以及其他许多国家）已经进行了全国性的家庭调查，收集人们消费的食品和商品以及他们所拥有的服务的数据。然而，到目前为止，这些调查还没有与废物管理问题联系起来。我们计划访问市场，购买食品，然后记录包装和有机废物。通过将这些信息与家庭调查数据相结合，我们可以计算出有多少家庭垃圾（如塑料）被收集起来，有多少被丢弃或燃烧，最终进入大气或海洋。在加纳，我们还将调查大阿克拉市区的非正式废物收集者。我们想知道这些小企业在多大程度上支持整个城市地区的废物收集和回收（特别是袋装水中的塑料），这样我们就可以帮助政府确定废物收集覆盖范围的差距。我们亦相信，强调小型废物收集商的重要角色，可为这些收集商提供更大的商业支持。我们亦会评估鼓励家居废物回收的社区教育活动，是否可减少本地环境中的废物和塑胶。目前，在塑料废物管理项目的支持下，一些当地慈善机构正在开展此类活动。在肯尼亚，水通常以罐装而不是袋装的形式出售，罐装的水经常受到污染。我们打算弄清楚，在委托管理的安排下，这种劣质水是否更安全。这涉及到自来水公司将管道网络的管理转交给贫民窟地区的当地企业，以减少对管道的破坏，并使水离贫民窟居民更近。我们将比较有这种安排和没有这种安排的地区的水质，看看它是否使出售的水更安全。我们还计划把水的销售者和消费者聚集在一起，寻找和测试减少在装满罐装水和在家饮用水之间的水污染的方法。在这个问题上，我们希望与供应商和消费者合作，而不是强加一个解决方案，但我们可以探索一些设计来保持水更清洁的容器。因此，通过这些活动，我们计划为水销售商提供不同策略的证据，以向没有管道连接的人提供更安全的水，同时管理塑料废物。在加纳，这包括尝试增加袋装水的回收和废物收集，因为袋装水相对安全。在肯尼亚，这包括试图减少用可重复使用的杰瑞罐出售的水的污染。除了我们关于如何管理贫民窟生活垃圾的家庭调查证据外，这应该有助于政府在非洲不断扩大的城市的贫困地区规划废物和供水服务。

According to WHO/UNICEF, whilst 91.8% of urban households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had access to piped or protected groundwater sources in 2015, only 46.2% had safely managed water available when needed. Vendors provide a key role in supplying urban off-grid populations, with consumption of bottled or bagged water (sachets, water sold in 500ml plastic bags) growing in SSA. Whilst several studies show bottles and bags are usually free from faecal contamination, given that many off-grid urban populations lack solid waste disposal services, when people drink such water, there can be problems disposing of the plastic bags and bottles afterwards.This project aims to deliver evidence on the different ways that people sell water to off-grid populations and what this means for plastic waste management. We plan to do this in Ghana, where most urban household now drink bagged water, and by way of contrast, Kenya, where the government has banned plastic bags. In this way, we want to widen access to safe water and waste management services among urban off-grid populations, by supporting water-sellers and waste collectors to fill the gaps in municipal services.Both countries (and many others elsewhere) already have nationwide household surveys that collect data on the food and goods people consume and the services they have. However, as yet, these surveys have not been connected to the problem of waste management. We plan to visit marketplaces, buying foods and then recording packaging and organic waste. By combining this information with the household survey data, we can work out how much domestic waste like plastics gets collected and how much is discarded or burned, ultimately entering the atmosphere or oceans.In Ghana, we will also survey informal waste collectors in urban Greater Accra. We want to find out how much these small businesses support waste collection and recycling across this urban region (particularly plastic from bagged water), so we can help government identify gaps in waste collection coverage. We also believe highlighting the important role of small waste collectors could lead to greater business support for such collectors. We will also evaluate whether community education campaigns to encourage domestic waste recycling reduce the amount of waste and plastic observed in the local environment. Such campaigns are currently pursued by several local charities with support from the Plastic Waste Management Project. In Kenya, where water is usually sold in jerrycans rather than bagged, the jerrycan water often gets contaminated. We plan to find out whether this jerrycan water is safer under an arrangement known as delegated management. This involves a water utility passing on management of the piped network to a local business in slum areas, so as to reduce vandalism of pipes and bring water closer to slum-dwellers. We will compare water quality in areas with and without this arrangement to see if it makes the water sold safer. We also plan to bring water-sellers and consumers together to find and test ways of reducing contamination of water between a jerry-can being filled and water being drunk at home. Rather than imposing a solution, we want to work together with vendors and consumers on this issue, but there are for example containers designed to keep water cleaner that we could explore.Through these activities, we thus plan to develop evidence on different strategies for water-sellers to deliver safer water to people lacking piped connections, whilst managing plastic waste at the same time. In Ghana, this involves trying to increase recycling and waste collection for bagged water, which is relatively safe. In Kenya, this involves trying to reduce contamination of water sold in reusable jerrycans. Alongside our household survey evidence on how domestic waste is managed in slums, this should help governments plan waste and water services in poorer areas of Africa's expanding cities.