Africa's Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Access, Affordability, and Alternatives

by Banerjee, Sudeshna Ghosh; Morella, Elvira

• ISBN13: 9780821384572
• ISBN10: 0821384570
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-09
• Publisher: World Bank Publications

Summary

The welfare implications of safe water and sanitation cannot be overstated. The economic gains from provision of improved services to millions of unserved Africans in enormous. The international adoption of Millennium Development Goals brought the inadequacies of service provision sharply into focus. With only 58% and 31% enjoying access to water and sanitation services respectively, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only continent that is off-track in achieving the MDGs in 2015. The problem is compounded by the fact that a rigorous and credible baseline did not exist on coverage to improved water and sanitation and resources required to meet the MDGs. This book aims to contribute to this gap by collecting a wealth of primary and secondary information to present the most up-to-date and comprehensive quantitative snapshot of water and sanitation sectors. The book evaluates the challenges to the water and sanitation sectors within the urban and rural areas and deepen our understanding of drivers of coverage expansion in the context of financing, institutional reforms, and efficiency improvements. Finally, the book establishes the investment needs for water and sanitation with a target of meeting the MDGs and compares with the existing financing envelopes, disaggregated by proportions that can be recouped by efficiency gains and net financing gaps. The directions for the future draw on lessons learned from best practices and present the menu of choices available to African countries. There is no recipe book that neatly lays out the possible steps the country should adopt to enhance coverage and quality of service. The challenges differ to a significant extent among African countries and solutions must be tailored to individual national or regional conditions.

Table of Contents

About the AICD	p. xvii
Series Foreword	p. xix
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
Abbreviations	p. xxvii
The Elusiveness of the Millennium Development Goals for Water and Sanitation	p. 1
A Timely Synthesis	p. 3
Data Sources and Methodologies	p. 4
Wide Differences in Patterns of Access to Water	p. 10
Equally Wide Differences in Patterns of Access to Sanitation	p. 13
High Costs, High Tariffs, and Regressive Subsidies	p. 16
The Stark Challenge of Financing the MDG	p. 18
Institutional Reform for Better Water Sector Performance	p. 24
A Multidimensional Snapshot of WSS in Africa	p. 27
Surveys in the AICD DHS/MICS Survey Database	p. 28
Surveys in the AICD Expenditure Survey Database	p. 29
Introducing a Country Typology	p. 30
Notes	p. 31
Bibliography	p. 31
Access to Safe Water: The Millennium Challenge	p. 33
The Importance of Wells and Boreholes in Water Supply	p. 33
Low Access to Piped Water…for Various Reasons	p. 37
Multiple Players in the Urban Water Market	p. 42
The Role of Wells, Boreholes, and Surface Water in the Rural Water Market	p. 49
Steep Growth of Wells and Boreholes as Sources of Water	p. 52
Notes	p. 59
References	p. 59
Access to Safe Sanitation: The Millennium Challenge	p. 63
The Predominance of On-Site and Traditional Pit Latrines	p. 63
The Sanitation Challenge across Countries	p. 66
Steep Increases in the Use of Traditional Pit Latrines	p. 69
Good Progress in a Handful of Countries	p. 71
References	p. 81
Improving the Organization of the Water and Sanitation Sectors	p. 83
The Heterogeneity of the Urban Water Market	p. 84
Varied Institutional Models for Nonpiped Services in the Urban Water Market	p. 102
Many Levels of Government Players in the Rural Water Market	p. 110
Many Players with No Clear Accountability in the Sanitation Market	p. 115
Notes	p. 120
References	p. 120
Urban Water Provision: The Story of African Utilities	p. 123
Access to Utility Water	p. 124
The Pace of Expansion of Utility Water Coverage	p. 126
Water Production Capacity Varies from Country to Country	p. 128
Two-Part Tariff Structures for Piped Water	p. 128
Sewerage Charges Linked to Water Bills	p. 131
Modest Water Consumption by End Users	p. 132
Substantial Water Losses in Distribution System	p. 136
Difference in Quality of Service among Country Groups	p. 138
Technical Efficiency and Effective Management of Operations	p. 139
Financial Efficiency and the Alignment of Operations and Finances	p. 142
The High Cost of Inefficiencies in Operations and Pricing	p. 146
The Role of Institutions in Improving Performance	p. 153
Utilities in the AICD WSS Database	p. 158
Notes	p. 159
References	p. 159
Cost Recovery, Affordability, and Subsidies	p. 161
Average Monthly Spending on Water	p. 161
Wide Price Variations among Service Providers in the Urban Water Market	p. 162
Two-Part Tariffs and the Small Consumer	p. 168
Paying for Water: How Common?	p. 171
Recovering Operating Costs: Affordable	p. 173
The High Cost of Connecting to Water and Sanitation Services	p. 176
The Cost of Subsidizing Capital and Operating Expenses	p. 179
Poor Targeting of Utility Subsidies	p. 180
Connection Subsidies as a Viable Alternative	p. 184
Methodology for Estimating the Annual Gross Profit and the Annual Cross-Subsidy between Household Consumers and Standpipes Captured by Standpipe Operators in a City	p. 187
Notes	p. 188
References	p. 189
Spending Needed to Meet Goals in Water and Sanitation	p. 191
The Challenge of Expanding Coverage	p. 191
The Unit Cost of Service Provision across Countries	p. 197
To Close the MDG Coverage Gap	p. 202
Unit Cost Matrix Model: A Methodology for Estimating Nonstandardized Unit Costs of Network Assets	p. 209
Methodology for Quantifying Rehabilitation and O&M Needs	p. 213
Notes	p. 214
References	p. 214
Bridging the Funding Gap	p. 215
Current Spending on Water and Sanitation	p. 215
Poor Budget Execution by the WSS Sector	p. 220
Even after Efficiency Savings, a Persistent Funding Gap	p. 224
Limited Scope for Raising Additional Finance	p. 231
Promising Ways to Increase Funds	p. 239
Other Ways to Reach the MDG	p. 240
Notes	p. 248
References	p. 248
Policy Options for the Water and Sanitation Sectors	p. 251
Policy Options for the Water Sector	p. 251
Policy Options for the Sanitation Sector	p. 260
Reference	p. 267
Access to Water Supply and Sanitation Facilities	p. 269
Institutions in the Water and Sanitation Sector	p. 293
Performance Indicators of Selected Water Utilities	p. 323
Tariffs	p. 349
Affordability of Water and Sanitation	p. 365
Funding Gap for Water Supply and Sanitation	p. 371
Index	p. 387
Boxes
The Problem of Shrinking Households	p. 38
Coverage, Access, and Hookup Rates: Relationships and Definitions	p. 40
Legalizing Household Resellers in Cote d'Ivoire	p. 48
The Opportunity Cost of a Distant Water Supply	p. 50
Ethiopia's Success with a Community-Led Program	p. 77
Senegal's Successful Experience with Private Sector Participation	p. 88
Regulation in Water Reseller Market in Abidjan	p. 109
Issues Constraining Rural Water Supply in Cross River State, Nigeria	p. 111
Burkina Faso's Sanitation Tax	p. 134
Methodology for Estimation of Hidden Cost	p. 147
Uganda's Successful Case of State-Owned Enterprise Reform	p. 156
Piped Water Delivered through Public Standposts in Kigali, Rwanda	p. 165
The Construction Index Factor	p. 201
Unit Costs of Infrastructure Projects Study	p. 211
Figures
JMP and AICD Estimates of the Prevalence of ôImprovedö Water Supply and Sanitation	p. 6
The Sanitation Ladder	p. 7
Dependence on Surface Water in Urban and Rural Areas, 1990s versus Early 2000s	p. 14
Coverage of Water Services, by Income Quintile	p. 15
Coverage of Sanitation Services, by Income Quintile	p. 16
Annual Growth in the Use of Sanitation Types, 1990-2005	p. 17
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