Angola: NGO experiences in water service provision for the peri-urban poor
Relying solely on centralized funds from the state budget to maintain local infrastructure in low-income urban areas has proved unrealistic, Development Workshop in Angola reports in a recent paper [1]. The DW experience also shows that the extension of services to the urban poor need not be about securing external finance, but can be achieved through the development of competent, capable, accountable local agencies or utilities that can work with community organisations. Costs are recovered through the payment of water sold at the standposts by users. These standposts are managed by Associations of Water Committees.
The participation of the community in the management of services in order to ensure sustainable services is fundamental. Some local Associations of Water Committees have actually managed to invest their own accumulated capital in the extension of the network supply, through the construction of new standposts and the organisation of management committees.
An inevitable part of developing sustainable basic services that serve the collective good and which people will support and have trust in is the creation of accountable institutions. Peri-urban residents are not averse to the idea of paying for a public water supply, provided that:
* the cost is less than what they pay for water from private water tanks;
* they have some assurance about the quality of the service provided;
* they have some assurance that funds go to sustaining the service.
[1] Cain, A. and M. Mulenga (2009) Water service provision for the peri-urban poor in post-conflict Angola. Human Settlements Working Paper Series Water 8, IIED, London.