Argentina’s National University of La Plata (UNLP) has published a report that reveals the complex situation of the city’s inhabitants in terms of access to drinking water and sanitation services.
The study, carried out by researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Economics, found that the coverage of water and sanitation networks in the capital of Buenos Aires is lower than in similar districts in the province.
They also reported that the growth in the number of households with basic services over the last decade has been lower than population growth.
Presentation
The presentation of the report was led by the Academic Vice-President of the UNLP, Fernando Tauber, and the Deans of Engineering and Economics, Marcos Actis and Eduardo De Giusti.
The UNLP Production Secretary, Daniel Tovio, also participated. The report was prepared by Nicolás Bardella and Joaquín Carrera from the Sustainability and Triple Impact Group of the Faculty of Engineering, Agustín Lódola and Dr Fernando Morra from the Sectoral and Territorial Development Laboratory of the Faculty of Economics.
“We are making this work available to our city so that it can anticipate and plan for issues that are not usually foreseen. It is a contribution that I hope will be taken into account in the future”, said Actis.
The study, based on data from the latest Indec census, did not analyse the quality of services provided in the region, which are linked to problems of leakage, water quality and the operation of treatment plants.
Conclusions
One of the main conclusions of the report is that the poor coverage of the public network has led to an increase in individual solutions (boreholes and chamber and well systems).
In the case of water, the coverage of this service has been homogenised throughout the territory, but as with any individual solution, it can work against a global and consistent solution to the problem.
In addition, they pointed out that there is a significant unmet demand for water and sanitation services, which is concentrated in areas with low density (difficult for the network solution), higher levels of poverty (which limits individual solutions) and high demographic dynamics. In the case of sanitation, the situation is more difficult. Even with individual solutions, there is still a large gap between communal centres.
