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Asivikelane service delivery impacts counter

Impacts counter_Water icon
Water
1528
Impacts counter_Sanitation
SANITATION
1965
Impacts counter_Refuse icon
SOLID WASTE
2325
Impacts counter_R&M icon
Infrastructure
315
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SYSTEMS IMPACTS
39
Impacts counter_Residents
RESIDENT IMPACTS
16218597

Since March 2020

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Publications-icon-–-Repairs-Maintenance

Infrastructure

Managing WASH infrastructure across local governments: a comparative case study of Indonesian, South African and Swiss municipalities

This research, published by the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management and co-written by Asivikelane, looks at how local governments manage water, sanitation and health infrastructure, also known as WASH. It highlights common challenges and suggests ways to improve these services so they better meet the needs of communities.

Download the PDF

Disaster management: Information on pre-, during- and post-disaster activities

Published by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Asivikelane collaborated on this guide to provide communities with practical information on disaster management before, during and after emergencies such as fires and floods. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of different government departments and explains the steps communities can follow when seeking support after a disaster.

Download the PDF

Improving disaster preparedness = safer communities

In March 2025, we asked 5,308 residents across 202 informal settlements in 8 municipalities what types of disasters they experienced over the past year. Residents experienced floods and fires which leads to loss of homes and belongings as well as illness. Residents asked for early weather warnings, functional communication networks and taps with enough pressure for fires.

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Basic training and tools can fix minor faults

In March 2025, we asked 5,308 residents across 202 informal settlements in 8 municipalities about communal services. Even when faults with taps and toilets are reported promptly through official channels, residents struggle to get them fixed. 79% of residents said they would fix services themselves if given tools and basic training.

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Sustainable Informal Settlement Infrastructure Summit: Building sustainable infrastructure through community-driven repairs and maintenance solutions in informal settlements

We hosted a Sustainable Informal Settlement Infrastructure Summit: bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders to foster partnerships and explore innovative solutions for dignified, sustainable access to essential basic services. The aim was to improve repairs and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure. The outcomes of the summit found that the future of repairs and maintenance is contingent upon empowering communities, reforming institutions, and forging resilient partnerships. The path forward must be rooted in a fundamental shift: from seeing repairs as a technical afterthought to recognising them as a cornerstone of dignity, health, and sustainable urban development.

Read the post-summit publication

Learning paper: Building Sustainable Infrastructure through Community-Driven Repairs and Maintenance Solutions in Informal Settlements

Asivikelane hosted a Sustainable Informal Settlement Infrastructure Summit, aimed at improving repairs and maintenance of water and sanitation infrastructure in informal settlements. The summit brought together a diverse range of stakeholders to foster partnerships and explore innovative solutions for dignified, sustainable access to essential basic services. We’ve documented these solutions in a multi-pronged strategy, demonstrating how to build sustainable infrastructure through community-driven solutions.

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A model of community-based repairs and maintenance of informal settlement water and sanitation infrastructure

Asivikelane’s community-based model for repairs and maintenance ensures that informal settlement residents are central to fixing communal infrastructure. The main idea is to train residents as plumbers so they can fix broken communal taps and toilets within their own communities. This paper outlines how this model can be replicated across municipalities.

Download the PDF

Knysna. Small fixes, big impacts

We take a look at how municipalities can integrate community plumbers and enhance fault reporting for efficient community repairs of communal services.

Download the Knysna PDF
Asivikelane WC#14 DOUBLE thumbnail

Women’s safety is compromised when broken services are not fixed

The municipalities of Knysna and Stellenbosch are slow to repair broken services in informal settlements. This results in the overuse of functional facilities, and some women express concerns about the safety and accessibility of alternative water and sanitation services.

Download the Knysna PDF
Download the data for Knysna
Download the Stellenbosch PDF
Download the data for Stellenbosch
Brief 8 (landscape)

Spatial data and adequate fault reporting can improve maintenance of informal settlement taps and toilets

One of the biggest challenges affecting access to basic sanitation in informal settlements is poor repairs and maintenance. While there are informal settlements with no access to taps and toilets – several settlements have fewer taps and toilets to the ratio of residents – what is worse is that the majority of these are unusable because they are either broken or blocked.

Read the full brief