MIREP: an innovative approach to private participation in rural water infrastructure

Acting on the insufficiency of financial resources is most probably one of the major stakes in access to drinking water in developing countries. The goal of the millennium is to halve the number of people deprived of drinking water and sanitation by 2015. The World Water Commission estimates that 180 billion dollars per year need to be spent to accomplish this; current expenditure is less than 75 billion. This level can only be reached through the massive mobilisation of private investors. But who should these private investors be and what framework for cooperation should be applied? For the past two years in Cambodia, GRET and the Cambodian engineering firm Kosan have been testing (in the framework of the MIREP Programme) the creation of rural piped water systems using local private investments in partnership with local decentralisation stakeholders.