Income and employment from services
Practical Action
standposts. The possibility also exists for vendors’ obtaining water from improved water points in
slums, which can represent a more convenient water source for the vendors as well as providing
additional income for the owners/operators of the slum facilities.
Table 3: Examples of situations where paid service provision would be better a) performed by
service providers (SP) who are slum residents, or b) outsourced to the wider urban poor
Service provider Notes
General
Infrastructure
construction
(including
earthworks)
Slum resident
External SP
Users of finished infrastructure have:
- increased sense of ownership
- knowledge of technology, promoting correct
usage and ability to make repairs.
Advisable in the case of a lack of available or
suitably skilled labour among residents -
employment reaches the wider urban poor and for
skilled work the quality is assured
Caretaker or
operator of
communal
facilities
Slum resident
External SP
Water-related
Major handpump
repairs or
plumbing
External SP
Quality of service provided is promoted because:
- caretaker can be easily held accountable
- caretaker’s social obligation to community
- (s)he is also a user of facility
Advisable in the case of failure of volunteer-
operated systems – outsourcing stops facilities
falling into disrepair/disuse
Investment into tools and/or training of a resident
may not be worthwhile for a service that is only
required occasionally and readily procured from
outside.
Water vending to
unserved parts of
the slum
Slum resident
Relevant for localised on-sale or cost-sharing of
water from private connections or wells within the
slum
Where time spent queuing at shared water points is
External SP
Slum resident
or
significant enough to create demand for water
deliveries. Suitability of slum resident for this
purpose (and on-sale, above) depends on social
attitudes towards charging neighbours for water.
Sanitation-related
Pit/septic tank
emptying
External SP
Unlikely that slum residents are willing to do it.
Also, regular, external SPs more likely to have:
- protective clothing/suitable equipment
- links to an established faecal sludge
management chain (environmental advantage).
Solid waste-related
Door to door
waste collection
External SP or
Slum resident
Depends on the size of the area served by the
collection service and willingness to pay (WTP) by
clients - if service is limited to the slum and WTP
exists then it is suitable for a resident. If not, then
external SP can also include higher income areas
with cross-subsidy from charges collected there.
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