Managing Water Services in Small Towns: Challenges and Reform Issues for Low-Income Countries

Abstract

Water services provision in low-income countries has become an important area of concern and research within the global sustainable-development agenda. The global interest in potable water-supply issues in the developing world is captured in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations member states United Nations 2000 . A key target of these goals is to halve the number of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by the year 2015. To achieve this target, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund WHO and UNICEF 2000 estimate that more than one billion people in the developing world will need to gain access to improved water services within the next 10 years. This estimate is based on the assumption that services for those who are already served will be sustained. However, recent studies have revealed that huge constraints still affect the sustainability of water supply services. These constraints include funding limitations, insufficient cost recovery, and inadequate operation and maintenance WHO and UNICEF 2000 . These challenges are greater in the fast-growing small urban areas of low-income countries where the highest population growth rates today are reported United Nations 2002; Satterthwaite and Tacoli 2003 . This article focuses on the problems and issues regarding water services management in small towns of low-income and developing countries. The article has three primary objectives. First, the authors show that whereas management systems for water service delivery in both rural and large urban areas are fast becoming accepted as norms, service provision in small-town settlements faces special challenges that may require rethinking conventional approaches. Second, the authors critically evaluate recent practices and efforts aimed at addressing the special challenges that water service providers face in small-town settlements. Third, drawing on the rapidly growing body of applied research and policy analysis directed specifically at small-town water supply, the authors identify an integrated set of reform considerations to guide policymakers and urban-planning professionals involved in water supply issues in developing countries.