Household Water Systems

throughout LAC to encourage the growth of the private sector around post-construction support, which should ideally contribute to a higher and more sustained quality of water service delivery.

The public sector can also better support the market for post-construction water system services by clarifying service quality regulations and better enforcing them (especially in rural areas), instilling more of a “stick” approach to water committees to ensure service quality meets established norms. Within this context, if water committees are currently providing a service that does not meet regulations and are liable to fines or other penalties from the government, they can seek out support for water system improvement through the circuit-rider model or otherwise from technicians and experts who understand regulations and can guide water committees in improvements and maintenance as needed to better meet standards. In general, clarification and enforcement of regulations around water service quality should provide a robust “stick” incentive for water service quality improvement and engagement with private sector providers of postconstruction services.

In addition to the provision of community water supply, there is room for market growth in the water sector at the household level, in some markets around household water self-supply (e.g. rainwater harvesting systems or individual wells), and especially in household treatment. In the former area, the primary constraint to households accessing improved smaller-scale household water provision systems is financial, and greater access to credit accompanied by a better targeted subsidy policy could help free up much demand from households.

Regarding household water treatment systems (HWTS), much of the water that is provided to households through community water systems in LAC arrives with inadequate treatment (if any type of treatment is carried out at all). In many cases households continue to consume this contaminated water, implying that while they have the convenience of obtaining water from a tap in their household, they are still placing themselves at risk for water-borne illnesses and thus not receiving an adequate level of water service. Some households mitigate this through boiling, which while effective can be expensive and fuel-intensive. Other options are low-cost household filters or other treatment options, but in many instances the demand for these filters is still nascent and undeveloped, especially in poorer rural areas given their relative lack of availability on the market when compared with urban areas, as well as the ongoing costs involved with eventual filter or cartridge replacement. Related to this and in some areas, particularly urban, there is also a vibrant market for bottled water, as households would rather buy already-treated water than invest in the application of some form of treatment themselves. In most urban areas the market for bottled water is already quite developed and functioning well; if the provision of treated, bottled water is to be a viable model in rural or more dispersed areas, the costs of transporting the bottled water would have to be offset such that the price would likely be too unaffordable for many households to satisfy their entire water demand from bottled water. It is likely more economically viable in rural areas and smaller towns to either establish a more robust communal treatment arrangement, or rely on HWTS. Unless the quality of the source water is such that treatment is prohibitively expensive, transport costs and logistics often preclude large-scale bottled water markets from providing all of household water needs in more dispersed areas.

Given the low cost of HWTS, it is unlikely that the financial sector has a role to play in facilitating household demand for water treatment options via household loans. However, there could be some space for the financial sector to provide a loan to a water committee for a larger-scale improvement to a communal-level water treatment system, or to extend credit to a private sector HWTS goods and service provider to help expand their business.

With water committees, like the above scenario around the provision of water supply, government could support linkages between the financial sector and water committees to address water system treatment needs. For HWTS specifically, government could use public W&S funds to assist HWTS providers with marketing and promotion, to help generate greater demand and knowledge around those products and their benefits, clarify regulations and assist with quality control or standards, and/or look for means to support supply chain efficiency through improved distribution channels to disperse areas. HWTS products could be marketed in public spaces, such as health clinics or local government offices through “clean water” campaigns, for example. Given some of the challenges around treatment at the communal level, there appears to be much room for growth in the HWTS sector, but demand will need to be increased through greater awareness and marketing of the different options, especially to lower-income market segments. This demand creation can be taken up by the public sector to support the growth of the private sector into lower-income market segments, but the private sector will also have to play an ongoing role in continuing to optimize HWTS products and communicate their benefits to consumers.