Desalination 251 (2010) 330–337
Sanitation services for the informal settlements of Cape Town, South Africa A. Melsab , D. Castellanoab , O. Braadbaarta, S. Veenstrac, I. Dijkstrac, B. Meulmand, A. Singelse, J.A. Wilsenachf a
Wageningen University, Urban Environment Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 500, 6700 AM Wageningen, The Netherlands email:
[email protected],
[email protected], www.wageningenuniversiteit.nl b Lettinga Associates Foundation (LeAF), The Netherlands; www.LeAF-water.org c Vitens-Evides International, The Netherlands; www.vitens.nl d Landustrie Sneek BV, The Netherlands; www.landustrie.nl e Cape Town Water Services Department, City of Cape Town, South Africa; www.capetown.gov.za f The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Cape Town, South Africa; www.csir.co.za Received 31 January 2008; revised accepted 15 May 2008
Abstract Sanitation coverage in the informal settlements of Cape Town is severely lagging behind. A recent inventory showed that the main barriers to the implementation of proper sanitation systems are unsuitability of the location of many settlements (more than 40% of the sites are located on private land, wetlands and flooding prone areas), high settlement densities (55%), the nonpermanent status of the informal settlements and the distance to existing sewerage networks. The technical feasibility of 14 different sanitation systems was related to these general constraints. The feasibility assessment showed that only chemical toilets and container toilets were systems that could be applied on a larger scale. Both toilet systems, however, have high service and maintenance costs. Based on the evaluation, an innovative pilot project consisting of a mobile sanitation unit (MobiSan1) is being developed and will be piloted. Keywords: Sanitation services; Informal settlements; Mobile sanitation; MobiSan1
1. Introduction During the last decade Cape Town as well as other cities in South Africa have experienced a huge increase
Corresponding author.
in the number of informal settlements. Urban areas are growing rapidly as they are perceived as a potential area of income and the only way to take advantage of the limited developments in the country. The Water Services Department of Cape Town is responsible for water and sanitation services in the city including
Presented at the Water and Sanitation in International Development and Disaster Relief (WSIDDR) International Workshop Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 28–30 May 2008. 0011-9164/0x/$– See front matter # 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.desal.0000.00.000
A. Mels et al. / Desalination 251 (2010) 330–337 services provision in the informal settlements. With respect to water and sanitation, the municipal council of Cape Town has defined two main goals [1]: To ensure access to a basic water supply to all informal settlements by 2008. To ensure access to a basic sanitation services to at least 70% of all the informal settlements by 2010. Both targets will be difficult to achieve considering the already existing gaps in services’ delivery and the difficult socio-economic, cultural and environmental constraints in the informal settlements. Also, they will be extremely challenged because of the constant flow of people immigrating from rural areas, poorer provinces and neighbouring countries. An additional challenge is that the city of Cape Town has agreed to provide basic water and sanitation services free of charge. This paper presents an analysis of the current situation in the informal settlements and investigates which sanitation options are feasible within the majority of these areas. In addition it presents a pilot project consisting of a mobile sanitation unit (MobiSan1). This system is designed based on field data with the aim of assisting the Water Service Department to meet its ambitious goals with respect to sanitation coverage. 2. Situation description Cape Town currently has more than 220 informal settlements spread throughout the city with an estimated population of about 900,000. Most of these informal settlement have been established in the
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post-Apartheid period due changed laws and regulations with respect to land-squatting and entering Cape Town. In most cases, the residents of the settlements are squatters. According to South African law, somebody who has build a dwelling on a certain piece of land and lives in it for a day, can not be removed, unless a house is offered in another area. The inhabitants of these townships are characterised by low-income profiles, living under extreme poverty conditions, lacking the proper financial means and urban infrastructure to cover their basic needs. A general policy to decrease the number of informal settlements is to relocate the inhabitants settled in the restricted areas to city owned land. Relocation is however a complex issue. The affected communities generally offer massive resistance to be moved (unless the relocation provides more suitable land, better conditions and closer to the economic activity of the city). In addition, there is growing concern about the land availability in the city. The accessible space is rapidly decreasing and thus the options for proper relocation. A recent inventory of the actual state of services delivery in Cape Town that was prepared by the Water Services Department concluded that most of the informal settlements in this city are severely lagging behind in sanitation coverage. According to official statistics 36.5% of the population in the informal settlement are serviced with basic sanitation [1]. Fig. 2 shows the most common sanitation options used nowadays in the informal settlements [3]. The main systems are container1 and bucket toilets, which number 4500 and 3000 respectively.
5000 4500 Number of toilets
4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Container Bucket toilet Water borne Porta potties toilet (100 L) (25 L) toilet (poor / full flush)
Chemical toilet
Pitliners
Dry sanitation (incl. ecosan)
Fig. 1. Sanitation options used in the informal settlements according to a survey in 2006 [3].
Other
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Fig. 2. Poorly or not-maintained toilets in the informal settlements in Cape Town.
It should be mentioned that the officially accepted number of people living in the informal areas is lower than the actual counting, thus leading to unreliable statistics. In addition, the Water Services Department of Cape Town aims to eradicate container and bucket toilets in a few years as they are not considered as basic sanitation. Taking both of these facts into consideration, the percentage of the informal settlements provided with basic sanitation decreases dramatically to less than 15%. The current approach of the Water Services Department aims to supply toilets in the informal settlements to be shared within five households. Each toilet is assigned to five families and in most of the cases they are locked; subsequently a copy of the key is provided to each family. Therefore the facility maintenance relies on its users. The toilet types that are mostly used are container and bucket toilets. Both types need to be emptied at least twice per week. The costs for the emptying services are significant and are a heavy burden on the operational budget of the Water Services Department. Because of the non-formalised situation of the settlements these services are considered as emergency services that however tend to remain in those categories for a long period of time. This approach reaches a better performance in small communities in periurban areas than in high dense settlements where the cohesion of its dwellers is much lower. Shared toilets do not take into account the population growth and the consequent increasing rate of households per toilet. As such newcomers are excluded from any sanitation facility. Shared toilets do not consider either the consistency between neighbours; in several cases conflicts among sharing households such us unequal maintenance care have led to destruction of the sanitation facility or either change of the lock for its private use
thus excluding the rest of the households. Reduced social acceptability as well as political bias and complains for the poor quality of sanitation facilities results in some cases with the damage, vandalism and destruction of the systems. 3. Methodology An analysis was made of the situation in the informal settlements of Cape Town through data collected from the Water Services Department and GIS data of the Cape Town city council. The gathered information was complemented by interviews with city officials, working groups and community leaders as well as by field observation work. Information on the individual settlements was compiled in a database. The database includes important information for selecting feasible sanitation systems such as housing density, access routes, water table and availability, topography, soil type and anal cleansing material. Based on the database a decision support tool (DST) was developed with the purpose to assess the technical feasibility of sanitation options to a given site layout. 4. Analysis 4.1. Location, ownership and density of the informal settlements Many of the settlements are located on unsuitable lands and are difficult to access for water and sanitation servicing. As shown in Fig. 3, more than 80% of the informal settlements are located in low lying, flooding prone areas, like wetlands. Others may be found on steep slopes. Only 22% of the settlements are fully accessible for trucks and tankers (Fig. 4). Seventy
A. Mels et al. / Desalination 251 (2010) 330–337 100%
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9%
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Not flooding prone
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Fig. 3. Flooding prone areas [2].
Fig. 5. Land ownership [2].
percent have only partial access (only a part of the settlement is reachable for trucks and tankers). Most of the settlements (75%) are located on land that is owned by the municipality (Fig. 5). Still, a large share (22%) is located on private lands. For private lands the Water Services Department needs to obtain the consent of the owner in order to deliver services on-site. Many land owners do not give that permission because they are afraid of making the settlement on their land even more permanent. As Fig. 6 shows, the density of the settlements is generally high and this is a major constraint for sanitation services provision. Around 42% of the sites have densities between 150 and 300 households per hectare while more than 10% even rise above the 300 households/ha. Servicing high-density informal areas is difficult because of limited space, the unplanned layout and limited accessibility. Providing waterborne or equivalent sanitation
services such as water flush systems are often not possible under these conditions.
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4.2. Social dynamics and community organization The social dynamics and community organization in the settlements differ significantly from site to site. Most of the people living in the informal settlements are immigrants from the Eastern Cape Province at the same time that there is a growing number of rural–urban migration and incoming people from neighbouring countries. Most settlers identify the informal neighbourhoods as a temporary shelter along with their existing homes in the rural areas. Therefore, while some inhabitants reside permanently in the settlements, the remainder constantly shift either between residencies or that of family members depending on their requirements. Strong migration patterns in the poorer urban districts lead to irregular settlements
42% 28% 19% 10% >300
Full
Partial
Fig. 4. Land accessibility [2].
150−300 50−150 households/ha
Fig. 6. Housing density distribution [2].
150 households/ha), only partial access for trucks and tankers, communal standpipes for water supply, a shallow water table, a mixed soil composition, a terrain slope lower than 25 and hard or bulky material as anal cleansing method.
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Settlement aspects from database Access Tracks
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Communal standpipe
Water Soil type table depth 2–5 m Loam/Sand
Flooding prone
Slope
Low laying areas
