The Development Planning Unit, University College London
Abstract
This book is one of the main outputs of a three-year project which has gathered and synthesised
knowledge from around the developing world not only on peri-urban water and sanitation but also on periurban
areas of metropolitan regions and the people who live and work in them. This includes information
collected specifically for the project in peri-urban localities of five metropolitan regions: Chennai (India), Dar
es Salaam (Tanzania), Cairo (Egypt), Mexico City (Mexico) and Caracas (Venezuela). It also draws on a small
number of experiences and innovative peri-urban interventions in different countries.
The content of the book is the result of close collaboration with the five project partners in the case
study areas and consultation with a broad range of people in over twenty countries, ranging from urban
professionals and practitioners to engineers, politicians, academics, staff from aid agencies and national and
international non-governmental organisations and, perhaps most importantly, peri-urban poor women and
men. The book offers a synthesis of scientific knowledge, institutional practices, people's aspirations and
formal and informal norms and regulations that govern the supply and access to water and sanitation services
by the peri-urban poor in metropolitan areas