Walking for Water in Malawi: Modeling Travel Time to Public Water Points in a GIS-Based Case Study of Intra-urban Water Access
Open AccessThe Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) defines access to water as the availability of 20 liters per capita per day at a distance no longer than 1,000 meters. The individual parameters within this definition are challenging to measure with precision. Geospatial methods can be used to measure physical accessibility to water when walking is the primary mode of household water transport. Physical accessibility is shaped by the variables that influence travel over the landscape, namely terrain, land use, and travel barriers, as well as the availability of water sources.A case study investigating intra-urban access to water is based in Blantyre, Malawi where 90 percent of low income area residents lack household taps, and instead walk to public water points for their household water. Roundtrip travel times to public water points were calculated using AccessMod, an extension for ArcView 3.x. These times were then correlated to household survey data on water collection and consumption habits, as well as user satisfaction.The results of the travel time analysis showed that the spatial distribution of household access to water is uneven among the 20 informal settlement areas. Based on these estimates, this study shows that between 69 and 75 percent of Blantyre residents have access to safe drinking water. This is significantly lower than monitoring data published by the JMP indicating that 95 percent of Malawi's urban residents have access to safe water. There was also a significant inverse correlation between travel time and households reporting that they were collecting water from an improved source. This means that higher travel times may be discouraging Blantyre residents from traveling to public sources that provide higher quality water. Instead, they may be seeking alternative water sources that may not be providing safe water.
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