ABSTRACT
Lessons from the past 40 years of development assistance have shown that good provision for water and sanitation is not only about infrastructure. It is also about local capacity to make appropriate choices in regard to the technology used and the institutional forms for building and managing it. This includes a local capacity to innovate when conventional methods do not work. It is also about finding local possibilities for all those who need water to get their needs met. In many settings, it is also about local possibilities for partnerships between government agencies, private enterprises, community organizations and, often, local NGOs – or at least an acceptance by government of the role of other service providers. Ironically, the less funding available (from households, communities, private enterprises and government), the more the need for ingenuity and for partnerships through which the resources and capacities of different stake-holders are combined. Only in relatively prosperous small urban centres can there be standard good quality solutions provided to every household by a single model and a single agency – whether government or private utility. In most small urban centres in Africa, Asia and Latin America, good quality solutions for low-income groups also depend on their more active engagement and, of course, on governments and water service providers allowing for and supporting this.
