Integrity failures and what they mean for residents of fast-growing cities

When we talk about integrity risks and failures in urban settlements, what do we really mean?  How do these issues play out for people moving to or living in a growing city? What are the challenges of water tanker operators and other service providers? 

Let’s take a look at the city of Lima. 

Many residents of Lima live in what are known as ‘asentimientos humans,’ or 'human settlements'. These are generally densely populated regions on the margins of the city, often on steep slopes where residents don’t always have land tenure. Residents generally do not have access to networked water or sanitation services. Some self-supply, some purchase water from tankers or informal providers, some organise themselves to collect, transport and pay for water from public, metered water fountains set up at the edge of the piped network. 

Making all these systems work is a complicated and undervalued challenge, sometimes fraught with integrity dilemmas. Overall it sort of holds up, but the system is unfair, unreliable, and leaking at the seams. That’s where integrity risks and failures are. 

From ignoring or bypassing water quality checks, to asking for bribes or giving preferential treatment, from ignoring human rights obligations, to taking advantage of people in desperate circumstances. Integrity failures take many shapes and colours. 

Here are a few ways in which they effect, Manuel, Carla, Maria and thousands of other in Lima. 

Keen to know more? Check out our free online course on integrity and the human rights to water and sanitation in Lima. 

Based on the course developed by the Water Integrity Network and Urbes Lab in collaboration with PUCP and Cap-Net, supported by SMUS, TU Berlin. SMUS - The Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).