Aqua for All

20 December 2011

Een grootschalige studie van het internationale consultancybureau Hystra, Aqua for All en het BoP Innovation Center, laat nu zien hoe initiatieven tot schaal kunnen komen en welke rollen en kansen er liggen voor overheden, bedrijfsleven en financieringsinstellingen.

Korte impressie van het rapport in het Engels:

Scaling-up the access to safe water and reaching out to the 2.1 billion people without access to safe water is possible and can even be profitable. For the fast growing urban population in developing countries (expected growth: almost 70% by 2030) piped distribution networks seem to be most appropriate. Good opportunities exist for utility operators (public and private), especially if they join forces and create hybrid water utilities that focus exclusively on serving fast growing communities in towns and slums of large cities. These urban areas could be served with relatively low capital investments. For different reasons, such hybrid utilities could not be purely public or private,  but rather require a blend of both, in terms of governance and financing. 

For rural areas and densely populated areas where water is brackish/heavily polluted, other water solutions are better. The Hystra Project Team could identify successful individual projects, but the challenge is to develop – on that basis - entire industries  to provide safe water for the poor and “to incubate many local enterprises that can copy the winning approaches”. For densely populated areas with brackish/heavily polluted water there are plenty of opportunities  for social entrepreneurs that can run mini-water-treatment stations (Kiosks). In rural areas private players can play a role, but to scale up support from public and philanthropic institutions will be needed. The report distinguishes two clusters of solutions for these rural areas: there is a market for ‘Devices, Flasks & Tabs’ (mostly  chlorine-based products and water filters) as well as for ‘Pumping & Harvesting’. In these markets there is room for private companies, but they preferably are to be supported by national or regional service platforms.