Public Sector Involvement
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Similar to sanitation, there is much room for public sector involvement around training, technical support, providing finance when need is demonstrated, clarifying and enforcing regulations, and enabling private sector involvement when most appropriate.
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Although household-level sanitation infrastructure is predominantly a household decision, public sector can support by clarifying and enforcing a household sanitation regulatory framework, providing subsidies to households with a demonstrated need, providing technical support, and establishing a supportive enabling environment within which the private sector can offer goods and services to households. More room for public sector engagement in the more “public� elements of sanitation such as sludge management, transport, treatment, etc.
Sanitation: Supply, Demand and Financial Constraints From a market-based perspective, also similar to the market for water in LAC, in many respects the supply side is fairly well developed for sanitation: in most countries there are a variety of sanitation technologies available, from on-site bio-digester pour-flush toilet models, ecological sanitation options, inexpensive dry pit latrines, as well as a full range of conventional household sanitation infrastructure designed to connect to an existing sewer network. In some cases, such as geographically isolated rural markets in lower-income LAC countries, the supply chain for sanitation is still poorly developed and there is room for business development and technical support to providers in order to improve the supply side. In most markets however, the chief barrier between households attaining a sanitation solution they aspire to is financial. This barrier is often amplified, primarily among lower income market segments, due to improperly targeted subsidies for household sanitation infrastructure. These subsidies come either from national, subnational and/or local government or outside organizations, but throughout the LAC region over time a well-intended but oftenpoorly targeted subsidy policy has generated entrenched expectations among many poor households that the government or some outside organization will eventually provide latrines or some sanitation facility to them for free, or nearly free, through subsidies.25 These subsidies in
On-Site ecological composting toilet and bathroom purchased with loan in Bolivia – Photo Courtesy of David Sparkman
25 The deleterious effects of poorly targeted subsidies on sanitation markets was something mentioned by all people interviewed for this study.
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