Analysis of spatial access to safe water by households in the Kampala Metropolitan region

Abstract

Several studies that have been conducted on safe water access in Uganda only looked at access to water in terms of cost and types of water sources and thus, little work has been documented on spatial access to safe water by households in terms of quantity demanded, end-user cost, availability, and quality of water. This study sought to analyze spatial access to safe water by households in Kampala Metropolitan Region. The specific objectives were to; i) assess the spatial distribution of effective water demand among households, ii) assess end-user costs and their effect on availability and access to safe water, iii) to determine the physicochemical parameters of water quality at multiple stages in water use. Using 438 household surveys, information on effective water demand and cost were obtained. GPS coordinates of each household were taken to map spatial access to safe water. Water quality of taps, boreholes, protected and unprotected wells were determined through experiments. The study employed a geospatial analytical research approach to understand the variation between neighborhoods and uses descriptive statistics, hotspot analysis, Ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, geographically weighted regression model, and Spatial Autocorrelation to analyze effective water demand, cost, and water quality. Water quality analysis was based on WHO and Ugandan standards. The results show that there is a spatial variation of effective water demand with households demanding an average of 157.59L/HH per day which also translates to about 4.3% of their income. The factors accounting for the household effective water demand include average monthly income, water cost, household size, average age, and education level. Water quality varied with water source across the area with tap water being the best in terms of Turbidity, pH, Electrical Conductivity, and Temperature. In conclusion, there is a spatial variation of effective household water demand in the Kampala Metropolitan Area which also is associated with high access cost for safe water, especially tap water. Therefore, this study recommends tap water be extended to most households to reduce the cost of accessing safe water.