ABSTRACT
Urbanization is inexorable. People move from the countryside to the cities, not because water supply and sanitation are inadequate, conditions in the city slums are far worse, but because their perception is that the opportunities for a better life for themselves and their children are much more promising. Water supply services enjoy a higher priority in communities than sanitation, and understandably so. People in large communities have little hope of being able to carry water to their homes. Studies have shown that the provision of a safe water supply in communities without proper sanitation effects little improvement in public health. The inadequacy of water supply services in small communities in industrialized and developing countries is not the lack of the appropriate technology. Local parochial and economic interests create reluctance to yielding sovereignty over water supply and sewerage to an outside agency which they may not be able to control.
