Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"

Multicriteria assessment of equity effectiveness in access to water supply in poor urban areas in Côte d’Ivoire: Case study in Bouaké

Access to a safe water supply and adequate sanitation facilities are imperative for human health. Unfortunately, this remains one of the biggest challenges particularly in poor urban areas of developing countries where proper services and infrastructures, such as adequate housing and water supplies, sewers and waste disposal sites are often not provided or exist in a very inequitable manner. Equity assessment in water supply projects is not obvious because services are delivered in a wide spectrum of possible socio-cultural, economic, environmental, political, institutional, legal and technical conditions. 

Equity as a key theme can be measured as a part of sector’s performance review however such an evaluation demands a more integrated and systemic approach.

This project intends to suggest a methodological approach to assess equity in water supply projects and tests this approach in the case of two poor urban areas in Bouaké (Sokoura and Oliénou). The methodology considers several factors which can influence equitable distribution of water supply.

The research project aims at assessing equity in water supply project using several indicators taking into account diverse dimensions: social policy of water supply, water access condition, knowledge, attitude and practices, environment of people, water quality and sanitary risks. The project involves a PhD fellow study in water and environmental management sciences.

Picture 1: Small tankers and containers queuing for water supply in Sokoura (Silué Bétio, 2008)

Picture 2: Unimproved well used for water supply in Oliénou (Silué Bétio, 2008)

Contacts

In Switzerland:

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH)
Socinstrasse 57
4002 Basel (Switzerland)
Prof. Guéladio Cissé
Tel . : +41 61 284 83 04      
E-mail : gueladio.cisse@unibas.ch

In Côte d’Ivoire :

Université d’Abobo Adjamé
Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)
01 BP1303 Abidjan 01
Monsieur Silué Betio
Doctorant, bénéficiaire de la bourse d’échanges universitaires KFPE
Tel. : +225 03 48 89 11
Email : betiosil@yahoo.fr/  betio.silue@csrs.ci