The condominial approach to the construction of water and sewerage networks was developed in Brazil during the 1980s as a response to the challenges posed by expanding services into neighbourhoods on the urban periphery. Using this method, water and sewerage services are not provided to each housing unit but to blocks of dwellings grouped into a unit known as a condominium.

A report from the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) describes how Brazil has provided condominial networks to 2.5 million urban residents. Under the condominial system public networks do not need to run through every plot of land or to be present in every street but merely to provide a single connection point to each city block. Therefore, the required length of the network is much shorter than that of a conventional system, needing about half the length for sewerage and about a quarter of the piping required for conventional water services. The approach allows supply of drinking water and sewerage treatment facilities to be decentralised, avoiding the costs associated with transporting fluids over long distances.

The condominial method helps to develop a closer relationship between service providers and users, encouraging them to work together to expand services more easily and adapt to local needs and constraints. The condominium becomes not only a physical unit of service provision, but a social unit for making collective decisions and organising communal actions.

The author describes successes of the condominial model in different urban contexts:

• In Brasilia, sewerage cover has been extended to half a million people, achieving universal access at very low cost to the utility company.
• In Salvador, the capital of Bahia state, what began as an experiment has now delivered sewerage services to a million people in densely populated and steeply inclined slums.
• In Parauapebas, a small mining town in northern Brazil, extensive construction support from beneficiary communities has provided water connections at a fraction of the cost of conventional delivery systems.
• Social mobilisation has worked well: at condominium level, residents have not found it difficult to reach consensus about system design issues.

In Brasilia the utility company formally adopted the condominial model, communicated policies clearly and provided residents with clearly defined system designs. However, in Salvador, the utility has been less committed. There have been problems convincing local residents to assume maintenance responsibilities. The number of people connecting to the sewerage network has been less than expected, undermining the original rationale for the programme.

WSP suggests that the key lessons from the Brazilian example are that:

• Community mobilisation must not just encourage people to get connected, but also include messages about the need for regular operation and maintenance.
• User fees must be fair so that users can benefit from any cost savings associated with the choices they make.
• Tariffs should be flexible: those whose land is crossed by pipes, or who do more than their fair share of maintenance, should pay less.
• Coherent strategies and choices of technology for network expansion must be clearly communicated to the public.
• Community maintenance is easier if pipes can be routed along pavements.

Source(s):
‘The experience of condominial water and sewerage systems in Brazil: case studies from Brasilia, Salvador and Parauapebas’, World Bank, Water and Sanitation Program, by Jose Carlos Melo, August 2005 Full document.

Funded by: Bank Netherlands Water Partnership Program

id21 Research Highlight: 14 February 2006

Further Information:
Jose Carlos Melo
Water and Sanitation Program Latin America
Alvarez Calderón 185
San Isidro, Lima 27
Perú

Tel: +511 6150685
Fax: +511 6150689
Contact the contributor: wspandean@worldbank.org

Water and Sanitation Program - Latin America

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'Partnerships for water and sanitation management in urban Argentina'

'Boosting water and sanitation services in Ecuador'

'Communities can create their own water supply and sanitation'

Condominial Sewerage Systems in Brazil