The public sector has failed to bring safe water and sanitation to Asia’s quarter billion poor urban residents. Is it time to examine alternatives to state delivery? What needs to be done to strengthen private sector participation in equitable, efficient and sustainable water, sanitation and solid waste services?

A book from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), entitled ‘Beyond boundaries: extending services to the urban poor’, examines water, sanitation and solid waste management in 19 cities in 10 Asian countries. External support agencies are urged to offer substantial and more creative support to ensure that the poor benefit from the switch away from public service providers.

Rural-to-urban transition is happening faster in Asia than anywhere else in the world. Some cities face populations doubling in only a decade. By 2015 an additional 595 million people will be living in cities, a large number in informal housing areas and shanties. Water and sewerage consumes a lot of capital, so enormous investment will be required. The current level of average annual investment in the urban water sector in Asia – a mere $3 per person for water supply and $1 per person for sanitation – will have to be substantially increased.

A number of innovative partnership schemes are described in the book which could be applied elsewhere, including:

• non governmental organisation (NGO) subsidised promotion of toilet facilities in Kathmandu and training programmes in their construction
• the public sector and NGOs working with squatter households in Dhaka to provide financially sustainable solid waste recycling and composting
• Hyderabad municipality’s partnership with an NGO, in effect operating as a not for profit distributing business, to provide community toilets, charges for which are waived for the disabled, elderly and street children
• Manila’s success with the private operators beginning to extend water supplies to slums by involving communities, NGOs and small enterprises in managing metering and billing.

ADB argues that it is crucial to involve the public sector as policy-maker and economic regulator, while civil society, NGOs and small enterprises need to lead the way in innovative, flexible approaches to retailing water and sanitation in the slums and lowest income areas. Private sector involvement is critical, not so much to provide private money to make up the funding gap but rather to reform the existing service provider, thus leveraging investment from those who have given up on the ability of the sector to repay loans. Repaying loans requires viable tariffs and accountable regulators.

External support agencies will have a vital role to play to ensure that public-private-community partnerships are pro-poor and service coverage is extended. They will need to ensure local NGOs and contractors are not frozen out by big operators and are supported in articulating local demands and mobilising communities to provide financial and labour inputs to network extension. Donors and lenders could also pay bonuses to operators who achieve universal coverage and provide technical and financial training to enable alternative providers to work alongside private operators.

There is also a need for:

• ensuring that build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts for water and wastewater treatment are not given concessional funding until effective distributors are in place to serve the poor
• keeping down costs and curbing designers’ desires for high-tech schemes
• emphasising on-plot and on-site sanitation rather than expensive sewerage
• developing contracts with private service providers that are transparent, sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing local circumstances and overseen by regulators with well-defined authority and capacity
• make sure that trust and partnership from communities and local authorities is reciprocated by the contractor in its profitability levels
• requiring all direct service providers – whether public or private – to greatly improve social development and customer relations skills.

Source(s):
‘Beyond boundaries: extending services to the urban poor’, edited by Almud Weitz and Richard Franceys, Asian Development Bank, August 2002 Full document.

Funded by: Asian Development Bank

id21 Research Highlight: 24 November 2003

Further Information:
Almud Weitz
Urban Economist
Social Sectors Division, Southeast Asia Department
Asian Development Bank
PO Box 789
0980 Manila
Philippines

Tel: + 632 632 6229
Fax: + 632 636 2408
Contact the contributor: aweitz@adb.org

Asian Development Bank

Richard Franceys
Cranfield University
Silsoe
Bedfordshire MK45 4DT
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1525 863105
Fax: +44 (0) 1525 863344
Contact the contributor: r.w.a.franceys@cranfield.ac.uk

Cranfield University

Other related links:
'Distinguishing rhetoric from reality: the search for common ground in water and sanitation'

'Development through self-reliance: lessons from Faisalabad'

'New roles, new rules: does private sector participation benefit the poor?'

Global Water Partnership

InterWater - Gateway to Water and Sanitation Information

WHO - Water and Sanitation

World Water Council