Evaluation of Feedback Mechanisms to Improve Water and Sanitation Service Delivery in Informal Settlements in Cape Town

Access to water is vital for societies to not only survive but thrive. Therefore, water and sanitation delivery play a critical role in any city’s development and stability. Without it, communities are at risk to undergo health, economic, and environmental crises. These risks become more profound for residents of informal settlements, who face additional barriers in securing access to reliable, quality water and sanitation services.

In this context, the City of Cape Town, South Africa has tasked the Columbia Capstone team with providing informed recommendations on how to improve customer feedback and City responsiveness for the effective provision of water and sanitation services in informal settlements. The team utilized a variety of qualitative and quantitative assessments in order to determine its ultimate recommendations.

Specifically, the team utilized a methodology consisting of desk research, stakeholder interviewing, and customer surveying to develop recommendations. The main findings of the project highlighted that improving accessible communication channels, stakeholder partnership, community awareness, context-specific problem-solving, and data management procedure has the greatest potential to increase the success of service delivery feedback in informal settlements in the City of Cape Town.

The team generated recommendations intended to increase community adoption and participation as well as to increase internal capacity and improve performance. Recommendations included investing in councilor codes for local politicians, a toll-free number, customer-centric KPIs, and an expansion of their current staffing capacity. The recommendations are designed such that they can be scaled and adapted to any city context facing similar challenges of service delivery in informal settlements.