Making the case to leverage household investment in water supply (or self supply)

In their briefing note on self supply published by the Water Services that Last programme, Stef Smits and Sally Sutton nicely set out the arguments that Ethiopia - amongst other countries - is responding to in the development its Self Supply Acceleration Programme. Its a nice read, makes the arguments for self-supply in some new ways, and is full of examples. I recommend it.

Amongst other points the authors make, we should not look at self supply as something backward, but it is actually a complementary approach that 'rich' countries still rely on to serve scattered communities. And just around the levels of coverage where Ethiopia now sits according to official figures - around 60% coverage - the authors highlight that we should expect the costs of extending rural water supply to increase significantly (as it gets more difficult to reach people in remoter locations). Self supply is one way to keep these costs from escalating.

Download from the Water Services that Last website

Posted by John Butterworth 13 April 2012