...In Africa, informal settlements areenormous, growing rapidly andunderserved. By 2020 it is estimatedthat more than half of the people ofAfrica will reside in urban areas,increasing the present urbanpopulation from 300 million to 700million1. The high rates ofurbanization, coupled with low ratesof economic growth, suggest that thispopulation growth will predominantlyoccur in the sprawling andunderserved informal settlements where about two-thirds of the peoplein African cities currently live, mostwithout access to basic water supply,sanitation and electricity services. These data highlight the immensity ofthe problem and the urgency withwhich governments, donors and otherstakeholders should tackle thepractical problems constraining servicedelivery to the urban poor.Public utilities in African cities haveseldom expanded water supplynetworks into these informalsettlements, despite being home to asignificant proportion of the urbanpopulation. Most efforts to serve theurban poor in marginalizedcommunities have been limited to theprovision of a few standpipes, deliveryby water tankers or other makeshiftarrangements

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