Feature Stories WATER 46192 ISSUE 7 | March 2006 Community Participation and Low Cost Technology: Bringing Water Supply and Sanitation to Brazil's Urban Poor F rom 1988 to 1996, the PROSANEAR project working with engineers, consultants, and officials supported the scaling up of a new approach of the local water agency. The implementation of to delivering water supply and sanitation these projects was carried out by local executing services to the urban poor in Brazil. The approach agencies, with assistance and oversight from both combined cost effective technologies with commu- regional and national coordinating units. Instead nity participation. The project provided one million of expensive, conventional, high-tech systems, poor people with piped water supply and sanita- neighborhoods were able to choose from a range tion. It also contributed to building stronger com- of simpler, innovative systems that made water munities and showed how WSS can be an integral supply and sanitation more affordable and more part of local area development plans. technically appropriate for poor and crowded settlements. In many places, groups of households were batched together in a creative "condomin- REACHING OUT TO THE URBAN ium" approach that not only made the networks POOR more efficient and affordable (by providing a more rational layout of collector sewers in people's The efforts of the government of Brazil to connect backyards, and thus allowing them to be laid at more people to water supply and sanitation (WSS) shallower depths), but also forged new bonds services in the 1970s and 1980s had little impact among neighbors. on the urban poor, who in many cases remained unserved. In 1988, the government developed a The project also sought a more permanent new approach to delivering WSS services to the ur- impact by mobilizing local women's, sports and ban poor. The World Bank provided an IBRD loan religious clubs to educate people about the impor- of US$80 million to support the new approach. The tance of sanitation and to teach them to operate project was called the First Water Supply and Sani- and maintain their new systems. tation project for the Low Income Populations, or PROSANEAR I for short. THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS: CLEAN WATER, SAFE SANITATION COST EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION PROSANEAR I resulted in a total of 900,000 people obtaining potable water piped directly PROSANEAR I was grounded in cost effective into their homes and around 1 million people technology and community participation. In real- obtaining sewerage services in 60 low-income ity, PROSANEAR I was not a single project, but settlements in 17 cities. The unit cost of extending consisted of dozens of separate projects in many services was relatively low: on average, costs were different communities around the country. Each US$104 per capita for sanitation and US$84 per project was the product of neighborhood residents capita for water. R.B. de GUYANA VENEZUELA French Guiana (Fr) Brazil at a glance % below the basic needs poverty line: 17% Staff Appraisal Report, Brazil-Low Income Sanitation COLOMBIA SUR. Atlantic Ocean Population: 178.7 million; 82% urban; 18% rural; % with improved water access: 89% Technical Assistance Project ­ PROSANEAR, World 1.2% annual growth rate Bank, 1988 % with improved sanitation access: 75% PERU B R A Z I L Surface area: 8,514.900 Km2 Project Appraisal Document, Brazil-Low Income Brasília Sanitation Technical Assistance Project ­ PROSANEAR, BOLIVIA Life expectancy: 68.7 years MOre inFOrMatiOn December 1999 CHILE PARAGUAY GNI per capita: US$ 3,090 PROSANEAR - People, poverty and pipes: a program of community participation and low-cost technology bring- ARGENTINA Atlantic Ocean Human Development Index ranking: ing water and sanitation to Brazil's urban poor, Alex URUGUAY 63 out of 177 countries Bakalian and Yoko Katakura. WSP, September 1998 FEATURE SToRiES THE SPIN OFF: STRONGER US$30.3 million. PROSANEAR II is a technical as- COMMUNITIES sistance project that builds on the lessons learned from the first phase, principally the preparation of With all the innovative elements at work, PROSA- participatory integrated WSS engineering designs NEAR projects became more than just infrastructure which contemplate complementary infrastructure projects; they became neighborhood projects, fu- interventions. The project is also supporting train- eled by the creative energy of fully informed and ing and awareness-raising for municipal, benefi- involved local residents. Some groups that came ciary community and federal stakeholders in the together to build water and sewer systems stayed undertaking of these participatory designs, as well together to work on other neighborhood needs. as analyses of best-practice approaches to rolling Women, involved in PROSANEAR, found an unusu- out WSS and related services to slum communities, al chance to speak and gain respect in the commu- and the preparation of manuals consolidating these nity. In addition, local construction and consulting approaches. This ongoing project is expected to firms adjusted their business and technical practices benefit low-income communities in some 35 mu- to include the community consulting and low-cost nicipalities throughout the country. technology alternatives. The project demonstrated the power of com- THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT bining community participation and appropriate, lower-cost technology. In addition, discussing and The experience of the PROSANEAR program agreeing upon cost recovery, tariff policy, and has caused a paradigm shift with policy mak- operation and maintenance routines with all stake- ers, engineering consultants and service providers holders during project preparation proved to be concerning the design and delivery of WSS and beneficial. The project helped change the view that complementary infrastructure services in hard- the poor could not pay for WSS services. On the to-serve low-income, peri-urban areas in Brazil. contrary, the poor paid, as they understood what PROSANEAR has also caught the attention of gov- they were paying for and that they would receive ernments in other parts of the world, including in adequate services in return. South Africa, Indonesia, Bolivia and the Philippines. Finally, the project demonstrated that water and The challenge is to tailor the PROSANEAR ap- sanitation interventions should be carried out as proach to national and local conditions that may be part of a local area development plan, and criti- very different from those in Brazil. cal complementary investments (such as drainage, paving, housing improvements, etcetera) should be identified early in the process. RELEVANT PROJECTS EXTENDING THE SUCCESS: Water Supply &Sanitation low-income Sanitation PROSANEAR II Project for low-income technical assistance Project- areas and Municipalities- PrOSanear ii In 2000, the World Bank initiated another phase PrOSanear i of PROSANEAR through a second IBRD loan of Project ID P006437 Project ID P039199 Water Feature Stories are published by the Water Sector Board of the World Bank. They are available online at www.worldbank.org/water and in hardcopy from whelpdesk@worldbank.org. 2