CITYSPEC - A mobile tool to monitor basic service delivery in informal settlements

Communities in Cape Town’s informal settlements live in harsh conditions. Rapid urban growth causes major challenges for basic service delivery. Allocated toilets, taps and street lights are often broken and do not get adequately maintained due to lack of monitoring.
CITYSPEC is a partnership between VPUU NPC and Formula D interactive with the aim to leverage mobile technology to help trained community workers to log reports in the field, take photos and capture GPS data of facilities. The systems backbone is a cloud-based administration and reporting centre, allowing users to create and track inspections, and monitor the status of facilities on an on-going basis. The system provides appropriate data mining and reporting tools to visualize and extract information needed by the city to action immediate remedial work.
Since January 2016 CITYSPEC is being piloted in Monwabisi Park, an informal settlement in Cape Town with approximately 26,000 residents in 6,500 households. In January 2016 inspection runs with Cityspec identified and reported 56 faults on water taps and 115 faults on toilets, and identified the actual ratio to 1 working tap per 50 households and 1 working toilet per 27 households in the area (Cityspec impact report, Jan-Feb 2016).
The aim of CITYSPEC is to expand utilisation of the app through VPUU NPC to other areas until 2018. After this, CITYSPEC will be made available to other organisations worldwide.
Access to clean and safe water and sanitation is an undeniable human right. It is inextricably linked with quality of life, dignity, health, food security, safety and educational outcomes (SAHRC, 2014).
In informal settlements, City of Cape Town has a target of one toilet for every five households and one tap for every 25 households. Yet, one in three South African’s lack access to basic sanitation (The Big Issue, 2014). The 2011 Census reported more than 29,000 households in Cape Town lacked access to appropriate sanitation (Census, 2011). The Social Audit Report (2014) cited unhygienic, unsafe toilets that result from the current haphazard monitoring and maintenance services (SJC et al, 2014).
Cityspec provides a scalable system to improving access to essential basic services. It helps monitoring the status of infrastructure and their GPS locations, integrates into municipal reporting systems, and facilitates rapid repairs.
References:
• “Lifting the Lid: Township toilets special report.” The Big Issue. 25 August-24 September, 2014.
• South African Census 2011
• “Report on the right to access sufficient water and decent sanitation in South Africa: 2014”. South African Human Rights Commission, 2014
• “Our Toilets are Dirty: Report of the Social Audit into the Janitorial Service for Communal Flush Toilets in Khayelitsha, Cape Town”. Social Justic Coalition, Ndifuna Ukwazi, IBP. 14th-19th July, 2014.

[@IvanPecorari]

incredible work, Well done Formula d and VPUU

[@formulaD_]

Thank you Ivan. We're always enthusiastic about working on projects that are socially uplifting and working with VPUU offered a perfect opportunity for this.