Supplying water to informal neighbourhoods through delegated management: the case of Ouagadougou

In Burkina Faso, the national utility for water, ONEA, faced a dilemma a few years ago: how to supply water to the people who needed it the most when they are not living in the formal pattern of the city? Is it possible to find technical and contractual arrangements to deliver a network public service in irregular urban areas, bound to be restructured? The ONEA, backed up by the AFD (the French Development Agency), had to pilot-test an innovative approach in 5 areas in the outskirts of Ouagadougou: constructing a simplified network, providing water in bulk and delegating the daily operation, the customer management and the development of the network (house connections) to private operators. And today, it works!