Economic inequality and the urban environment : the case of water and sanitation

This paper looks at the relationship between economic inequality and urban environmental quality in developing countries, focusing on the provision of water and sanitation services. It explores the consequences of dual systems, whereby a proportion of a city's residents are served by subsidized town water and sanitation facilities, whilst another section of the city has been forced to develop a variety of on-site strategies through their own efforts. Among the findings are a. that poorer households are generally more adversely affected by low levels of provision and that standard evaluation techniques perpetuate this bias; b. that the cost structure of service provision implies that equal access to a standardized system is more efficient than the different levels of access and treatment which prevail; and c. that access to water and sanitation and the means by which such systems are financed can be one of the most significant and effective means of distributing resources in the urban context.