Cooperative management of RWSS in Haiti

One of the most important economic characteristics to consider at the turn of this century is the decline in the state’s capacity to offer basic services to the various populations living all over the globe. Thus, an increasing majority of the world’s economic sectors recognizes the superiority of private initiative and market pressures over collective initiative and centralized planning. More and more analysts are recognizing the fact that well-being will be the result, of personal effort, of the private sector, of competition between enterprises and of a less prominent role of the state. In this context, rural areas of very least advanced countries were neglected because the state was overly concerned with urban constituents belonging to a particular social sector; efforts undertaken in rural areas were sporadic at best. This kind of situation could be perpetuated in less advanced countries like in some parts of Africa, or some Asia or in a country such as Haïti. The direct consequence of this situation is the persistent economic exclusion of the rural areas. Conversely, the current neo-liberal movement opens the opportunity to re-think the non-urban areas located in severely underdeveloped countries. A new management concept that would stop or reverse the tendency to economically restrict these sectors is needed. One could naturally question how sound the possibility of cooperative management would be if applied to offer crucial basic services such as water and essential sanitation; these services have traditionally been provided by the state. This study proposes to explore the feasibility it would be to create such public service enterprises.