Governing the "Other" Grid: Emerging Micro Water Networks Beyond the Utility Grid in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya) and Wa (Ghana)

A much-debated issue of urban water governance across African cities is set-up of, and relation between, bodies providing and regulating water access through the utility grid. However, despite efforts to improve water access through utility grids, African urban majority populations remain disconnected from them, or connected but water flowing irregularly. Therefore, People access water through other means, often through emerging micro water networks. We argue that while micro water networks are dominant means of water provision for large fractions of urban populations across Africa, they have at the same time largely emerged under the radar of scholars and practitioners dealing with urban water governance. Micro water networks represent an important segment of African urban waterscapes. They are extremely diverse in terms of their size as well as their technical and governance configurations and may either serve entire neighborhoods, or just a couple of households. They may directly draw groundwater via mechanized boreholes, pump water into over-heads storage tanks or rely on hydro-mobile water infrastructures for onward distribution of water. Boreholes may be drilled by utilities or by private individuals. They may be licensed and formally regulated, or installed informally. They may be managed by individuals, community-based organisations, or by other people more or less sanctioned by the utility or regulatory bodies. In order to bring these important, albeit understudied sociotechnological constellations of African water supply to the fore, we provide a comparative analysis of micro water grids in the three African cities Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya) and Wa (Accra). With this, we open the view to the large variety of micro water grids, their governance and function for urban water supply across Africa.