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| Housing and Environmental Project SAPMA, Grenada SAPMA Housing and Environmental Project is located to the North East of St. Andrew's in the rural communities of Pearls, Moyah, Conference, Tivoli and La Potrie. It began in 1991 after a poverty survey was carried out by Caribbean Conference of Churches. The communities identified were very poor and under developed, the housing units were very small and prone to natural disasters. There were very few families who could afford safe drinking water and the sanitation condition was deplorable because most people used nearby streams, rivers and bushes to dispose of their waste which was a health hazard to the many young children and the elder persons in the communities. The objectives of the practice were to improve the housing conditions through access to affordable houses and to improve existing poor and small structures by rehabilitating them. The initiative has managed to upgrade the poor sanitation condition and this has reduced the risk of outbreak of diseases among young children and elderly in the communities. The housing and environmental conditions have improved by approximately 40 and 45% respectively. Since the initiation of the practice 40% of the target group received housing materials for construction purposes and 50% received assistance with pit latrines and house construction. Also many families now enjoy piped water. Generally housing provision has improved in the area and there has been an improvement in the sanitation while the local business earned money from the purchase of materials. Most of those involved in the rehabilitation and construction of the houses gained relevant skills in addition to the employment opportunities presented by the initiative. Reference: Best practices and Lessons Learnt Unit –UNCHS (Habitat) Rehabilitation of Urban Areas; Guarapiranga Project, Brazil The Guarapiranga Water basin is located in the northern part of Sao Paulo region of Brazil and extends into Embu-Guaco and Itapecerica Da Serra municipalities. The Environmental Sanitation Program of the Guarapiranga Water basin started in 1993, aiming to guarantee the water quality of the Guarapiranga Reservoir, through corrective actions including basic sanitation infrastructure and capacity building for fresh water management. The implementation was based on the concerted efforts of state and local authorities with financial support from the World Bank. The Guarapiranga Reservoir presently supplies near to 25 percent of the drinking water to the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA). The urban informal settlements (more then 190 different slums) had progressively expanded into the lower part of the basin, near the reservoir. The rehabilitation and expansion of the Guarapiranga area entailed relocation and resettling of the slum dwellers. The works included new streets, paving, drainage, channeling of streams and waste collection. The population participated in the process of architectural design and civil works by offering suggestions on the most suitable design solutions. The implementing authorities also developed a proposal for the Guarapiranga Water-basin Management agency which involved an environmental master plan for the water basin integrating sectoral plans for land use, sewerage, solid waste and water quality. As a result of the programme the following has been achieved
Reference: Best practices and Lessons Learnt Unit –UNCHS (Habitat) Preparing a Concession: Working towards Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation Services in Gweru, Zimbabwe. Janelle Plummer and Godfrey Nhemachena. Working Paper 442 04. GHK International, London, January 2001. 65 pages. The authors emphasize the sound process of project preparation undertaken by the municipality in the late 1990s, highlighting the consensus building and stakeholder consultations that took place and the appropriate use of external advisors. The project stalled before commercial close, however, because of changes in the macroeconomic and political environment and the unacceptability of the needed large tariff increases. Favourable Policy and Forgotten Contracts: Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation Services in Stutterheim, South Africa. Janelle Plummer. Working Paper 442 01. GHK International, London, November 2000. (62 pages) This paper evaluates public-private partnerships in water and sanitation service delivery to the poor in South Africa, describing the regulatory framework as well as national efforts to build capacity. In addition, this case of an affermage (lease) contract, entered into in 1993, illustrates a number of typical problems observed in public-private partnerships: difficulties for the municipality to manage the split in responsibilities between public and private sectors; the need to strengthen the municipality's capacity for effective monitoring and oversight of the contract; and the challenge of how to adapt a contract to changing goals and circumstances. Designing Pro-Poor Water and Sewer Concessions: Early Lessons from Bolivia. Kristin Komives. Private Participation in Infrastructure, Private Sector Development Division. World Bank, Washington D.C. 1998. 35 pages. Governments in many developing countries are looking to private concessionaires to improve water and sanitation services in low-income areas. To design pro-poor concession arrangements in the water sector, policy makers must pay careful attention to how the proposed contract and existing or proposed regulations will affect the obligations, ability, and financial incentives of the private concessionaires to serve low-income households. The Bolivian government awarded a concession for water and sewer services in La Paz-El Alto in 1997. One goal of the process was to expand in-house water and sewer service to low-income households. This paper uses the Aguas del Illimani case as a basis for exploring how the design of typical concession agreements (i.e. monopoly private service supplier) can affect outcomes in poor neighborhoods. The author finds that concession contracts, the contract bid process, sector regulations, and regulatory arrangements all have the potential to affect service outcomes. Policy makers can increase the likelihood of improvements in low-income areas by (1) making contract objectives clear and easily measurable, (2) eliminating policy barriers to serving the poor (e.g. service boundaries that exclude poor neighborhoods, property title requirements), and (3) designing financial incentives that are consistent with service expansion or improvement objectives for low-income areas. As contracts are subject to renegotiation, expansion or connection mandates alone do not guarantee that concessionaires will serve poor areas. Provisions and standards that reduce service options (e.g. requirement to eliminate all alternatives to inhouse connections) or restrict the emergence of new service providers (e.g. exclusivity in the service area) have the potential to cause more harm than good.
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