Costing and financing of small-scale water supply and sanitation services

Small-scale water supply and sanitation systems form an essential part of the provision of services in the pan-European region, particularly in rural areas, and sufficient financial means are required to facilitate their safe operation and safeguard public health. Challenges for these systems include a large financial gap between the costs of providing services and availability of funding sources, insufficiency in ability to cover all recurrent costs, low economies of scale and lower policy attention and financial priority from governments. This publication guides national and subnational policy-makers responsible for water and sanitation interventions in defining strategies for the sustainable financing of service provision through small-scale water supply and sanitation systems. [Publisher abstract] This publication contains two main chapters, bookended by an introduction and conclusion. Chapter 2 presents the conceptual framework, describing the six life-cycle costs of drinking-water and sanitation services and the three potential sources of finance, and how these can be brought together. Chapter 3 provides specific considerations for application of this framework to small-scale water supply and sanitation systems. An analysis of the particular financial challenges and opportunities to identify strategies to address them is presented for each of the cost categories.