The transition from community water management to public private partnership and participation: an intermediate model for remote and underdeveloped locations: the case of La Gonave, Haiti, Caribbean

This paper argues for a transition phase/model for small rural water supplies transitioning from the Community Based Model (CBM) to the Water and Sanitation Programme’s Public Private Partnership & Participation model (to be referred to as WSP-4Pi in this paper). Concern Worldwide thinks that such a transition phase is especially suited to rural water facilities in remote and underdeveloped areas characterized by the absence of agile private enterprises (to provide operation and maintenance services) and strong local authority and central government departments/structures to play crucial monitoring and regulatory functions. The phase or model, which can be termed small scale professional operator (SSPO), avails the right mix of features that can facilitate poor rural communities to progressively transfer the management of their facilities from the Water User Association (WUA) to a Water Service Provider Enterprise (WSPE). The presence of a spare parts and technical service supply chain or enterprises is crucial for the transition to happen. Concern’s proposition is based on experiences and lessons learnt by Concern while implementing water supply programmes on the island of La Gonave, Haiti over the past 7 years. The SSPO model has so far been tested over a period of 21 months between May 2011 and February 2013. Hence the findings and lessons shared in this briefing paper should be treated as interim. The results of numerous analyses carried out and tools and formats adopted for this model cannot fit in the scope of this paper but are available upon request.