The fundamental importance of groundwater for urban drinking water supplies in sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly recognised. However, little is known about the trends in urban groundwater development by individual households and its role in securing safely-managed drinking water supplies. Anecdotal evidence indicates a thriving self-supply movement to exploit groundwater in some urban sub-Saharan African settings, but empirical evidence, or analysis of the benefits and drawbacks, remains sparse. Through a detailed analysis of official datasets for Lagos State, Nigeria we examine the crucial role played by groundwater and, specifically, by household self-supply for domestic water provision. We then set this in the context of Nigeria and of sub-Saharan Africa. One of the novelties of this multi-scalar approach is that it provides a granular understanding from large-scale datasets. Our analysis confirms the importance of non-piped water supplies in meeting current and future drinking water demand by households in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the role played, through self-supply, by groundwater. Our results demonstrate inconsistencies between datasets, and we make recommendations for the future. We argue that a key actor in the provision of drinking water supplies, the individual household, is largely overlooked by officially reported data, with implications for both policy and practice.

中文翻译：

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监测城市家庭将地下水用作家庭水源：拉各斯州，尼日利亚和撒哈拉以南非洲地区的数据分析，对政策和实践产生影响

人们越来越认识到地下水对撒哈拉以南非洲城市饮用水供应的根本重要性。但是，对于个别家庭城市地下水开发的趋势及其在确保安全管理的饮用水供应中的作用知之甚少。轶事证据表明，在撒哈拉以南非洲某些城市，兴旺的自给自足运动正在开采地下水，但经验证据或对利弊的分析仍然很少。通过对尼日利亚拉各斯州官方数据集的详细分析，我们研究了地下水，尤其是家庭自给水在家庭供水中的关键作用。然后，我们在尼日利亚和撒哈拉以南非洲的背景下进行设置。这种多标量方法的新颖性之一是，它可以从大规模数据集中获得详尽的了解。我们的分析证实了非管道供水在满足撒哈拉以南非洲部分地区的家庭当前和未来饮用水需求方面的重要性，以及通过自给自足发挥的作用。我们的结果证明了数据集之间的不一致，并为未来提出了建议。我们认为，官方报告的数据很大程度上忽略了提供饮用水供应的关键行为者，即单个家庭，这对政策和实践都有影响。通过自给自足，通过地下水。我们的结果证明了数据集之间的不一致，并为未来提出了建议。我们认为，官方报告的数据很大程度上忽略了提供饮用水供应的关键行为者，即单个家庭，这对政策和实践都有影响。通过自给自足，通过地下水。我们的结果证明了数据集之间的不一致，并为未来提出了建议。我们认为，官方报告的数据很大程度上忽略了提供饮用水供应的关键行为者，即单个家庭，这对政策和实践都有影响。