Throughout the developing world, water utilities face a major challenge when it comes to serving poor citizens. The poor are frequently unable to afford a water connection and often find tariffs too high. They may lack the legal documentation they need to apply for service or live in hard-to-reach areas. Often the urban poor get their water from ‘informal providers’ such as neighbours, water vendors or semi-legal standpipes.
A common theme running through this state of affairs is regulation. Governments are making decisions about how high tariffs are, what connection charges should be, or which documentation is required to apply for one. Laws and regulations make many water practices ‘informal’ or even ‘illegal’. These decisions and laws all fall under the guise of the ‘regulatory framework’, a framework that guides the actions of utilities and providers, citizens and customers. Clearly this framework has a huge direct and indirect impact on what service the poor eventually receive.
BPD has undertaken (non-academic) practical research into how institutions that regulate water and sanitation provision can improve the service received by poor communities. This 16-page note:
Adapting regulation to the needs of the poor: Experience in 4 East African countries (648 KB PDF file)
looks at regulation through the lens of four African case studies: Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya and Rwanda. Through the BPD-led initiative with financial and significant substantive support from GTZ and the World Bank Institute, four regulators worked together with local partners over the course of a year to clarify how their action or inaction impacts upon the poor. Each came up with an action plan to address specific challenges they face. While the work is ongoing, this note presents a timely overview of how regulation impacts the poor and the role that partnerships involving the regulator can play in improving the service that poor people receive.
BPD is also working with the World Bank and PPIAF to prepare a short guidance note on practical steps that institutions in charge of regulation in the water sector (including, for instance, price setting, quality control, competition and norms and standards) can take to make regulation more conducive to expanding access and improving service to poor customers.