Abstract
Cost recovery to finance operation and maintenance is considered a key component of sustainable infrastructure provision. With that realisation, the Botswana policy for wastewater and sanitation management has put cost recovery to the forefront of waterborne sanitation provision. Since the development of this policy framework, a number of waterborne sanitation projects have been undertaken in major villages that are expected to recover operation and maintenance costs. However, there has never been a comprehensive evaluation of the successes and failures of the cost recovery initiative since its inception. This paper reports on the experiences of waterborne sanitation cost recovery initiatives in two major villages of Botswana, and highlights some possible threats to its sustainability. The main threats to sustainability of the system were found to be the institutional set-up, which does not lend itself to effective cost recovery, complicated billing system, which leads to limited payments, and lack of effective sanctions for non-payment. The paper proposes that in addition to assessing the willingness and ability to pay for sanitation improvements, as is often the proposed approach to ensure cost recovery, institutional reform should be undertaken to support effective cost recovery.
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