THE ASIAN Development Bank (ADB) will undertake a project designed to help small-scale water service providers, get financing to enable them to serve households out of reach of bigger water concessionaires.
ADB said in a Jan. 30 update on its projects that it has allocated $50,000 for a study this year that will assess financing mechanisms now available to these small water utilities in the Philippines.
ADB noted that these small providers give water to about 20%-50% of house-holds not served by big concessionaires like Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services Inc., including informal settlers who are not connected to piped water system.
The study, which was approved last month and is programmed to run for 10 months, will focus on understanding hurdles SSWPs face in order to be able to craft an appropriate financing model.
“While small-scale water service providers play a vital role in meeting the water and sanitation needs of the country, current situation is not conducive for [them] due to a number of issues, foremost of which are the lack of institutional or legal framework regarding their formal participation in WatSan provision and the lack of access to financing,” ADB stated.
WatSan is an initiative of FairWater, a Dutch Foundation that focuses on providing equitable, reliable water supply to the poor.
“Such lack of access to financing has limited the operations and expansion of [small water utilities] in helping the government provide water service connection, especially among the urban poor and rural areas not reached by the formal utilities,” ADB said in the project update. — AKKA
