Making the business case for WASH

Published on: 07/11/2012

The report of a recent workshop on 'Consensus building .. on the provision of micro-finance for water supply, sanitation and hygiene and multiple use services in ethiopia' includes some interesting ideas of insurance products and multiple use systems that deliver productive benefits beyond traditional water supplies. MUS is a subject that IRC has been interested in for a long time, and its great to see this debate engaging Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) in Ethiopia.

Building on this report and theme, IRC will shortly produce a short film targeted at MFIs and making the business case for WASH. This is not about privatisation of (essential) community water supplies. But it is about where there is scope for private enterprise linked to rural water supplies both at household and community levels. As well as community level projects for multiple uses (domestic, small-scale irrigation, livestock) there is much current interest in Self Supply where households access water through their own investments in family wells. Although many of these wells are used for drinking, these investments tend to driven more by motivations to be productive than have water handy on the doorstep.