Everyday risks and access to water and sanitation in Lilongwe urban and peri-urban areas

The household survey INHAbIT Cities - UNHIDE (Investigating Natural, Historical and Institutional Transformations in Cities  and Uncovering Hidden Dynamics in Slum Environments) focuses on urban risks and sanitation in Lilongwe. The aim was to assess access to basic services and risks perception of urban dwellers living in areas characterised by different conditions of access to water and sanitation and other basic services. Lilongwe was a small town of less than 20,000 inhabitants in 1966 and only started growing after it became the capital in 1975. Its population has reached approximately 1 million inhabitants, living in 58 administrative units, called areas. Infrastructures and service provision is concentrated in the central areas – where parliament, ministries, government offices, embassies, hotels and the commercial area were located -  while low income areas suffer the most from infrastructure and basic services deficits. To illustrate, while some areas access water through in-house connections, others are served through water kiosks, characterised (in some areas) by high rates of discontinuity. Similarly, everyday risks are unevenly distributed across urban spaces: as shown in the survey perception of risks varies drastically from neighbourhood to neighbourhood and depending on the quality and availability of services provided. Data for this survey were collected between February and April 2015 by a team of local researchers, who administered the questionnaire in local language.

Publications linked to this survey are:

Rusca M., Alda Vidal C., Hordijk M., Kral N., (2017) Bathing without water, and other stories of everyday hygiene practices and risk perception in urban low-income areas: the case of Lilongwe, Malawi, Environment and Urbanisation Vol 29, Issue 2, pp. 533 – 550. 

Tiwale S., Rusca M., Zwarteveen M., The power of pipes: mapping urban water inequities through the material properties of networked water infrastructures. The case of Lilongwe, Malawi, Water Alternatives, Water Alternatives 11(2): 314-335.

Rusca M. (2018): Visualising urban inequalities: the ethics of videography and documentary filmmaking in water research, Wires Water, https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1292