4 The economics of sanitation initiatives (ESI) for sanitation decision making in Southeast Asia

Author: Guy Hutton

This presentation discusses cost data from 5 Southeast Asian countries in various forms (by technology, by site/project, by hardware/software, by financing source, by timing, and under different infrastructure capacity use levels) to aid decision makers in intervention selection and to draw more general lessons about sanitation financing, efficiency and sustainability. Cost data were triangulated from household surveys, project or provider documents and local market surveys to estimate investment and annualized life cycle costs per household and per individual.

The various types of decision that are made by different levels of decision maker are discussed in relation to cost and other available evidence. Evidence on sanitation benefits is presented to illustrate how to supplement cost information to make better decisions. Recommendations are made for improving decision making using newly available economic evidence.

The data has been collected within the framework of the Economics of Sanitation Initiative (ESI) which is being promoted by the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, with the involvement of local stakeholders and the financial support of SIDA, Environmental Cooperation-Asia (ECO-Asia, a project of USAID) and the Asian Development Bank. The Initiative aims to contribute socio-economic evidence to inform decisions on the costs of not investing in sanitation (Phase 1), and the costs and benefits of a range of sanitation improvement options (Phase 2). Originating in Southeast Asia, ESI now extends to South Asia, Central Asia and Africa.

The results of the study will be fully available by April 2011.