Abstract
Abstract In dealing with the challenge of providing water services to urban low-income areas, the concept of ‘pro-poor water services’ is popular in the policy literature. Based on an extensive literature review, this article examines the relation between the implementation of pro-poor water services and the equity of access. Pro-poor water services comprise a set of technological, financial and organisational measures employed by utilities in developing countries to improve service provision to low-income areas. In practice, the combination of low-cost technologies which limit consumption, measures to enforce payment for services, and the use of community-based and private suppliers, means that pro-poor service often entails the utility delegating part of the responsibilities, costs and risks of providing services to those living in low-income areas. Indeed, it is by partially withdrawing from these areas that utilities succeed in reconciling the objective of improving service delivery with the realisation of their commercial objectives. Our analysis shows that in implementing pro-poor service delivery strategies, there is a risk that concerns about cost recovery and risk reduction on the part of the utility prevail over those about the quantity, quality and affordability of the service for the poor.
Highlights
Past efforts of development agencies and governments to improve access to potable water have paid off: 96% of the world’s urban populations have access to improved water sources (WHO & UNICEF )
With an urban growth rate of 4.58% and a growth rate of 4.53% for low-income areas, in Sub-Saharan Africa, ‘slum growth is virtually synonymous with urbanization’ (UN-Habitat, p. 22)
Our analysis reveals that there is a mismatch between the argumentation to promote pro-poor services and the reasons that explain its popularity: whereas pro-poor services are promoted to better tailor services to the needs of the urban poor, the enthusiasm of utilities to embrace the concept mainly stems from how it allows them to demarcate ‘the poor’ as a distinct customer category
Summary
Past efforts of development agencies and governments to improve access to potable water have paid off: 96% of the world’s urban populations have access to improved water sources (WHO & UNICEF ). Many utilities in the socalled Global South have established dedicated ‘pro-poor units’ or departments, which have the specific responsibility to provide services to low-income areas (WSP ) Funding for these units or departments may come from different sources and may be organised differently from that of ‘normal’ service provision. Our analysis reveals that there is a mismatch between the argumentation to promote pro-poor services and the reasons that explain its popularity: whereas pro-poor services are promoted to better tailor services to the needs of the urban poor, the enthusiasm of utilities to embrace the concept mainly stems from how it allows them to demarcate ‘the poor’ (or low-income areas) as a distinct customer category In developing this argument, the article first illustrated how the idea of pro-poor services marks a de facto shift away from the MII.
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