ABSTRACT
According to recent estimates, by the year 2004 more than one billion people were not using safe drinking water services, and more than 2.5 billion were not using appropriate sanitation services in developing countries (World Health Organization [WHO] and The United Nations Children s´ Fund [UNICEF] 2006). Every day, around 6,000 people, mostly children under fi ve, die from diarrhoeal diseases caused by inappropriate water and sanitation (WS) services (United Nations Human Settlements Programme [UN-HABITAT] 2003, 59). Increasing the coverage with appropriate WS services can, therefore, be considered a priority for development that is also acknowledged in the WS target set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).1 Meeting this WS target will require substantial efforts in terms of mobilisation of fi nancing and in terms of reforming WS sectors.
