STEPS researcher Lyla Mehta was a guest on BBC World Service’s flagship discussion programme, The Forum, to talk about inequality of consumption. During the discussion, Lyla shared insights from the STEPS Centre’s project on peri-urban sustainability.

Although some people in cities in the global South have access to water supplied by the state, there are many others who struggle to get access to water and sanitation. As the STEPS project found, these are often people who live in so-called ‘illegal’ or informal colonies, many on the edge of cities. Gender is also a factor in this inequality, as it often falls to women and girls to fetch and carry water – an activity which can take minutes or hours away from other potentially productive activities like schooling.

The other discussants on the programme were the historian of consumerism Frank Trentmann, and the political scientist Eduardo Gómez.

You can listen again to the programme on the BBC website.