Water and Sanitation for the Urban Populations
About
At WSUP, we recognise that water doesn’t just come out of a tap, it flows from a functioning system – not just made up of boreholes and pipes, but of the people, institutions, regulators, businesses, and politicians who manage it. International development is littered with examples of short-term water projects which cease to function after a couple of years; at WSUP, we are determined to create sustainable, systemic change which creates lasting value for low-income urban residents. The key to achieving lasting sustainability is ensuring systems and services are financially viable. Enormous strides can be made by incorporating business thinking into public service provision, and by recognising low-income people as citizens and consumers, who have the right to receive services from their governments and to make choices about how their needs are met. Sometimes this is best achieved by bringing the private sector into the urban WASH space, and sometimes by helping the mandated utilities to develop viable commercial services for low-income customers. In Kenya, Bangladesh and Ghana, for example, we have supported the local utilities to develop dedicated customer service units to better meet the needs of their low-income customers. In all our projects, we work alongside local providers, enabling them to develop services, build infrastructure and attract funding so they can reach low-income communities. We also work closely with the communities themselves, to understand and relay their needs and concerns. Political commitment and institutional change are equally critical and political leaders need to prioritise WASH investment and policy change. WSUP now advises international financial institutions and our utility and city partners on how best to mobilise investment and target low-income urban residents, resulting in more than US$643 million of finance being raised.
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