Tapping the Market Opportunities for Domestic Investments in Water for the Poor, 2013.
World Bank; WSP; IFIC.
This report examines piped water schemes in rural areas of Bangladesh, Benin, and Cambodia, where the local private sector already plays a major role in the delivery of water (for the purposes of this study, the term “rural” also includes small towns outside of the main urban areas). The majority of households in all three countries currently get their water from private and communal sources. Little systematic information is available about these markets, however; most information on the private water sector focuses on large service providers.
The study examines the performance of networks in each country and investigates the preferences of poor households in locations served by them. It also examines commercial and investment climate factors that may affect firms’ actual or perceived costs and risks, driving their decisions about increasing investment in their business. Specifically, the study seeks answers to the following questions:
- Is lack of interest by the domestic private sector a rational response to weak market potential, or are lack of firm viability and the use of inappropriate business models preventing it from taking advantage of market opportunities?
- Are policy and investment climate factors increasing the (actual or perceived) cost and risk associated with doing business?
