core sector communique

 

 

 

Rural Piped Water Supply – An Emerging Small Scale Service Industry

 

 

To ensure people’s access to safe drinking water free from arsenic, the Government of Bangladesh along with the support of the World Bank, has undertaken the Bangladesh Water Supply Program Project (BWSPP) to expand the provision of drinking water supply services in selected rural villages and small towns. The project aims to contribute to Bangladesh’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Water Supply and Sanitation by 2015 and has introduced innovative service provision measures including piped rural water systems.

Rural piped water scheme is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh. The 21 rural piped water schemes involving 18 private sponsors under implementation represent a potential promising service industry. These schemes are implemented through local Public – Private Partnerships i.e. community - private sponsor partnerships to partly finance, implement and/or operate the schemes. The Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives is implementing the BWSPP which is funded by the World Bank (IDA Grant of US$ 18.29 million).

The project implementation progress is satisfactory in all three major project components: rural piped water supply, Pourashava water supply and rural non-piped water supply. All the key contracts are in progress and in the remaining months before project closure in April 2010, the focus will be on completing all ongoing contracts. The project is also supporting cyclone reconstruction works and ensuring access to safe water in cyclone affected areas.

The project has demonstrated significant advancement, particularly in rural piped water supply schemes involving partnerships between community and local private sponsors. The innovative approach requires higher investment costs, new institutional management, operations and maintenance frameworks and hence it has to be closely monitored, while technical and business advice and support has to be provided to ensure improvement of future schemes. It is therefore critical that the lessons and experiences from piloting this innovative service provision measures are incorporated into similar initiatives.