Water is a non-substitutable human need. However, water scarcity is prevalent among 60% of the urban population living in the slums of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), partly due to ineffective resource distribution and governance. Globally, access to improved water sources is used as an indicator for water access; hence different stakeholders have invested in providing improved water sources. Utilities and NGOs have deemed pre-paid meter public standpoints (PPMs) the most successful available technology to extend pro-poor water services to the urban poor across SSA. In Kampala, Uganda, the national utility company (NWSC) adopted PPMs, not every water user in the slums chooses to use PPMs as their source for water. This research investigates the determinants of water source choice in Bwaise II, a slum in Kampala. I employed a mixed methods approach. First, I utilized GIS methods to present the spatial arrangement of the water system in the slum. Secondly, I utilized qualitative methods, namely interviews and focus group discussions with different water users, to answer questions investigating how, why, and when water users decide which sources to use. Results from this study present the changes in the water provision and access patterns in Bwaise II since the adoption of PPMs. They also present the perceptions different users have of different sources to specifically uncover the challenges users face when trying to access some of the components of the PPMs such as acquiring or recharging tokens. Findings from this study provide recommendations to improve the provision of the PPMs in slums to make them more accessible to the users.
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