Water inequalities in cities : Abidjan, Ivory Coast

In Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the water resources are managed by SODECI, a private corporation that obtained a concession from the Ivory Coast Government in the sixties. Until 1998, 95% of the households of Abidjan had an access to drinking water, in contrast with 43% nationally. But from 1999 to 2011, there was a succession of politic crisis (a succession of coups) which resulted in a service instability, and as of today, only 70% of the inhabitants have a regular and safe access to water.

As shown on the map, the city can be splitted in three zones, depending on its access to water:

(Map 1 : Safe water access in Abidjan and the resulting conflicts; adapted from ONEP's data)

- The first zone (red), considered as in "extreme difficulty", is where the city got wildly extended in slums. In these neighborhoods, people only have access to drinking water for 2-6 hours/day, mostly during night time. They experiment cuts and limited pressure (1min/L). This zone includes Abidjan's biggest neighborhood, Abobo, 1,39 millions of inhabitants.

- The second zone (orange), includes the neighborhoods in “difficulty”. The water is available for 6 to 12 hours a day, and the pressure is still low (45s/L).

- The third zone (yellow), which is the city center (Plateau, Adjamé and Treichville), is “privileged” and doesn't experience any problems.

(Slums in Abobo)(landportal.org)

With that said, and considering the major drop in the access to water in 1999, how deep are the politic crisis in terms of responsibility in the disparities I just pointed out ?

I. A spatial partition – snowball effect.

When the instabilities started in 1999, a lot of inhabitants did what seems fair to do – they moved to the city rather than staying isolated in the countryside. But Abidjan wasn't prepared for that : in 1998, 2,87 millions of inhabitants were living there, and in ten years, they had to welcome around 5 million more, which resulted in the creation of slums in the suburbs, such as Abobo, Cocody, Port Bouet, Yopougon and Koumassi, cities that represent 71% of the entire city's population.

On the other hand, there was no time for resources planning too : although the population was growing of 25% a year, the water available was only growing by 5% a year. That probably explains the cuts during day time : the supplies simply run out of water. Are you wondering why there wasn't more water available ? Well, because groundwater basins need to renew themselves with rainfalls. The problem is, the populations settled on these basins which blocks the renewing. As of today, the main groundwater is exploited at 90%, which isn't sustainable and is a long-term issue.

Therefore, the politic crisis indirectly provoked this problem.

II. What are the consequences ?

The first obvious consequence is the discomfort caused by such a random availability. People, and especially women and children who are responsible for the water have to fetch water at night. Very often, the water supply isn't even close to the house : this survey reports that 42% of the inhabitants of the “extreme difficulty” and “difficulty” zones have to walk for more than 1km to fetch water, while 39% walk for between 500 meters and 1km. Let's note that the OMS standard is to keep every household closer than 200 meters from at least one water supply. This distance and water availability schedules therefore occasions tiredness, which leads to sicknesses and non-focusing at school.

(Queuing up to get water) (abidjantv.net)

But the consequences aren't just about people's health : they are also economic and social. According to the previous survey, it costs 2.6 times to these inhabitants to fetch water outside of their homes than having the water in their own tapes, because in addition of paying the fees, they have to buy a lot of costly items to stock and carry water or to buy bottled water.

Some social tensions resulting of the rarity of clean water can be observed. According to the ONEP, the more the neighborhood is in difficulty, the more tensions take place (see map 1), such as protests, riots, fights to be the first to get water, or supplies destruction. These tensions are caused by the high fees of subscription to the water distribution, because the inhabitants of the neighborhoods in difficulty think it is unfair for them to pay as much as the people who don't encounter issues and have unlimited water. It is no surprise that almost the half of the protests and other issues take place in privileged neighborhoods : the inhabitants of the zones in difficulty have to walk there to fetch water, and there's a certain logic in protesting in privileged zones to be heard.

(A protest against SODECI) (lepointsur.com)

III. Since the end of politic instability in 2011, which improvements have been made or are planned to take place ?

According to the law, in Ivory Coast, the SODECI has to make sure the water is produced and distributed at every moment of the day, an objective they can't meet because of the lack of infrastructures. On the other hand, the State has to invest in new water supplies : that is why there weren't any improvements or new projects during all the crisis years.

But what about now ?

The State is planning on acting on this issue, by connecting the neighborhoods in difficulty to the water service first thing, or creating new supplies throughout the city. They are also getting investments from private corporations such as the Société Générale (a French bank) to get more performing water systems, as shown in the infography below.

(Source : Société Générale website, click to learn more)

In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that politics have had a big influence on today's issues, because of the coups between 1999 and 2011 that kept the politics away from providing safe water to some of Abidjan's weakest neighborhoods.