The Need for New Approaches

A haphazard or project-by-project approach to serving low income consumers, as opposed to a mainstreamed, core-business approach [is widespread]. Non-governmental organizations may provide communities with a borehole, water kiosk or public toilet, but this is invariably done on a piecemeal basis and without a link to the utility.

Urban environments are challenging

Low income urban areas present particularly challenging environments in which to achieve scalable, viable and effective provision of safe water, improved sanitation and basic hygiene.

Population growth will be concentrated in urban areas in the near future as developing countries undergo rapid urbanisation. Urban areas will account for 83.5% of Africa’s population growth between now and 2050, while rural areas will account for 16.5% of growth in the same period.

Access to safe drinking water and basic improved sanitation is failing to keep pace with this rapid growth. As a result progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) water and sanitation targets in urban areas has been negligible. The situation is set to worsen as the number of people in urban areas without access to improved sanitation is expected to increase to 898 million by 2015.

Traditional approaches have failed

Traditional interventions have tended to be implemented on a small-scale, project-by-project basis without a link to service providers as opposed to taking a mainstreamed, core-business approach. They have not address the critial barriers of incentives and have not provided any long term solutions.