Water for Human Consumption

1
Water for Human Consumption

• By Thomas Righi, Brian Luksis, and Sean Hampsey

2
Human Right to Water

• Entitles everyone to sufficient, safe,
  acceptable, and affordable for personal and
  domestic use -United Nations Committee on
  Economics, Social, and Cultural Rights (MDGs)
• 1.1 billion people are denied access to
  sufficient clean water to meet basic needs.
• Many of these countries face large inequities of
  water availability.
• Access to water in many poor countries is
  widespread but in the poorest communities, water
  is unreliable, not of good quality and often very
  expensive.

3
Multiple Providers

• Water networks in most water deprived water
  countries are usually operated by a single
  citywide utility also with a range of
  intermediaries between water and house hold
• Water in the poorest countries is often provided
  by multiple sources. While the rich may have
  plentiful clean water, water in the slums is
  usually provided by sand pipes, privately own
  trucking services, and even sometimes from
  neighbors and community wells.
• Water sold through these intermediaries climbs a
  price ladder, that in turn forces water to be
  expensive in the areas that most need it most.
  10 to 20 times more!
• In Kenya a six month salary would buy the
  sufficient amount of water a family needs in one
  day

4
How to Solve this Problem

• A block tariff system is where prices rise on a
  biases on how much is used to promote public
  policy goals. Ex. A low or zero tariff can
  enhance affordability.
• In south Africa 25 liters a day is provided free
  of charge to every citizen.
• Poor is last in line because of three reasons.
  Local scarcity, Communities providers, and
  Politics.

5
Public Providers key to provision and financing

• The challenge for all providers, public and
  private, is to extend access and overcome the
  price disadvantage faced by poor households.
• The source of weakness of public providers comes
  through poor governance and the infrastructure
  decay caused by underinvestment are recurrent
  themes.
• Public policy meets four key conditions guard
  against political interference in the allocation
  of resources, transparent policymaking to support
  accountability, separation of the regulator and
  the service provider, and adequate public
  financing for the expansion of the network.

6
Private Providers

• The number of people served by private water
  companies has grown from about 51 million in 1990
  to nearly 300 million in 2002.
• Concessions have been widely tried and tested,
  with mixed results.
• In the 1990s concessions were the main conduit
  for private investment in water

7
Private Providers Cont..

• Three common failures, linked to regulation,
  financial sustainability and transparency in
  contracting, can be traced to these constraints
• Network expansion, Tariff renegotiation, and
  financing.
• Another form of private sector involvement is
  management contracts, which represents
  arrangements in which a municipality or local
  government purchases management services.

8
Delivering the Outcomes

• Two words summarize the starting point for
  accelerated progress in water, National
  Strategy. Here are four ways to start
• 1. Establish clear goals and benchmarks for
  measuring progress.
• 2. Ensure polices in water sector are backed by
  secure financing provisions in annual budgets.
• 3. Develop clear strategies for overcoming
  structural inequalities based on wealth, location
  and others.
• 4. Create a governance system that will make
  governments and water providers accountable for
  their goals.

9
Public access and Financing for the Poor

• Solving Cost recovery through tariffs must be
  limited to include the how the poor households
  will gather enough to pay.
• This creates a central role for public spending
  in extension to water in poor households
• Also highlights importance of cross-subsidies in
  utility pricing

10
Mixed Results

• Subsidies through water tariffs vary to different
  poor.
• With low connection rates, and most that lack
  connection are poor, progressive outcome is
  unlikely.
• But Chile, for example, receive subsidies on
  water and compensates the utility through
  government payments.

11
A Call for Regulation

• Regulation is KEY
• With limited competition for funding, regular
  authorities need to ensure that providers are
  managed correctly.
• Some key areas are Political independence, the
  ability to investigate and show penalty power,
  being able to share to the public the pricing and
  other water facts, and finally Public
  Participation to ensure the consumers interests
  are represented.