Public-private partnership model for WASH effectiveness

Water-borne disease remains endemic despite increasing access worldwide to clean water sources. This is due to unhygienic practice, unreliability of the clean water sources (frequent breakdowns and extended repair “down-times”), and contamination during transport and storage. To address these problems, a methodology has been developed centring on financial incentive for local private sector actors operating as rural WASH service providers. A community-based management approach is adopted under which community water and sanitation committees pay for annual service contracts. The paper presents monitored data from a pilot project conducted in 2013-4 in 155 communities in five districts of rural Uganda. The conclusion is that the local incentive system developed by the pilot is producing results (more than 90% reliability is recorded), and that the monitoring and public-private partnership structures provide a strong basis for further interventions which promote full cost-recovery from consumers and improved hygiene and water quality.