Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2. The cost for one house connection in the same slum area is about 0.3 of that
for a public tap, or as much as $120. Consumption is much higher, around
150 lcd or five times as much, with the price to the householder about
the same per m
3
as paid by the public tap manager. Thus, the investment
cost per family for the house connection is more than 10 times as much
as for using a public tap. However, the unit water charge is considerably
higher for public tap water in order to gain sufficient revenues to pay for
tap management, including operation and maintenance.
3. The percentage of homes in a slum area that use public taps varies widely.
The average is about 50 percent each for use of public taps and for use
of house connections (including sharing of one house connection by sev-
eral families). This indicates that most urban slum areas are populated by
families of diverse income ranges.
4. Most public taps installed are being utilized more-or-less as planned, but lit-
tle feedback information is available to permit reorientation of the planning/
design criteria to obtain a much higher percentage of success. Very few urban
slum improvement projects include budgets for post-construction usage mon-
itoring which would furnish the needed feedback. This represents a gap in
the planning of urban tap systems that, hopefully, International Assistance
Agencies will take into account in the future. Moreover, periodic usage mon-
itoring can be effectively combined with monitoring for evaluating O&M
needs, another serious gap in conventional public tap planning.
5. Continuing tap management is essential if the facility is to remain intact
and be wisely operated with efficient use of water. For the reason, taps
may best be located on private home property, with an agreement with the
homeowner to be responsible for tap security and management, including
collection of fees established by mutual agreement between the homeowner
and the municipality.
6. A typical slum area includes a wide range of family incomes. The source
of supply varies accordingly, from (1) individual home wells (using a hand
pump), to (2) public taps with self-service, to (3) public taps with vendor
service, (4) shared house connections, and (5) individual house connections.
The tendency is to progress upward in the series as family income increases.
7. With effective tap management, the municipal water authority can be rea-
sonably reimbursed for its actual costs for furnishing water to public taps.
Where the municipal agency cannot exercise controls, some of the taps
are likely to be converted to local private-sector water supply businesses,
with only a part of the delivered water being paid for. Hence, arranging
for competent management is essential for a financially viable program.
8. The results of this study indicate that it should be very worthwhile for an
interested International Assistance Agency to sponsor a project to obtain
much more detailed information on experiences in using public taps in
urban poor people areas; to analyze these data; and to prepare a manual of
guidelines to assist in planning public tap programs in DCs. The proposed
