Scaling Up Water and Wastewater Access in Low-Income Rural US Communities – a Case Study

Many find it hard to believe that the United States of America (US) would have much to contribute to discussions of scaling up water and sanitation globally. The US is arguably the richest nation in the world. The US is wealthy, but it also has the greatest disparateness between rich and poor people of industrialized nations. Indeed it has only been recently that low income rural areas have begun to narrow the gap in terms of water services.

One of the lessons of the US experience is that bridging that gap and ensuring sustainable water services for (especially low income) rural communities is as much about developing a network that can enable the development of human and social capital (civic infrastructure), as about providing financial and built capital.

This case study will outline the US system of support for rural community water systems. It is a system that is neither purely governmental, nor private sector, but rather is based on decentralized community water systems, supported by government funded intermediary technical assistance (TA) organisations.