Water and Sanitation Program: FIELD NOTE May 2014 97215 Delivering Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Fragile States Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Lessons from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in the Sud Region (EPAR-Sud) Jean-Martin Brault, Zael Sanz and Bruno Le Bansais The Water and Sanitation Program is a multi-donor partnership, part of the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice, supporting poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Michael Merisier, Deputy Technical Director, and Fabienne Beltrand, Director of the Rural Department, from DINEPA (National Water and Sanitation Directorate); Pierre-Yves Rochat, Project Director of the Swiss Cooperation in Haiti; and Jerome Stanley, Community Development Specialist, for their valuable support. Contact us For more information, please visit www.wsp.org or email Zael Sanz at wsplac@worldbank.org The Water and Sanitation Program is a multi-donor partnership, part of the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice, supporting poor people in obtaining affordable, safe, and sustainable access to water and sanitation services. WSP’s donors include Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and the World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are entirely those of the author and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its affiliated organizations, or to members of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The material in this publication is copyrighted. Requests for permission to reproduce portions of it should be sent to worldbankwater@worldbank.org. WSP encourages the dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission promptly. For more information, please visit www.wsp.org. © 2015 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) Latin America and the Caribbean Region wsplac@worldbank.org www.wsp.org | www.worldbank.org/water Delivering Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Fragile States Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Lessons from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in the Sud Region (EPAR-Sud) This document aims to share lessons learned from the implementation specifically, in the regions of Sud and Nippes for the component of the World Bank financed component of the Rural Water Supply financed by the World Bank and in the Grande-Anse region for the and Sanitation Project in the Sud Region after its final evaluation. component financed by the Inter-American Development Bank. ABOUT THE PROJECT The EPAR project -which ran from August 2007 to November Leading the reform of the drinking water and sanitation sector 2013- managed to significantly increase access and improve in Haiti, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (EPAR sustainability of water services in benefiting communities by by its initials in French) of the National Directorate of Drinking introducing a radical change in the way these services were Water and Sanitation (DINEPA by its initials in French) involved provided, all while in a period marked by political instability, the construction or rehabilitation of drinking water schemes in devastating hurricanes, the 2010 earthquake and the cholera small towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in the Sud region, outbreak. View of Chantal town, Les Cayes District, in the Sud Region, Haiti. Photo “Chantal” by Pandario (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). www.wsp.org 3 FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States HAITI 10.4 million inhabitants POPULATION INFORMATION OF THE INTERVENTION AREAS Municipality Chardonnières Municipality Chantal Municipality Maniche Municipality Baradères Total Population 24,087 Total Population 32,562 Total Population 22,841 Total Population 39,361 Urban 7,528 Urban 3,941 Urban 989 Urban 4,217 Rural 16,559 Rural 28,621 Rural 21,852 Rural 35,144 Municipality Cavaillon Municipality Miragoane Total Population 46,462 Total Population 59,670 Urban 2,070 Urban 15,069 Rural 44,392 Rural 44,601 POPULATION IN THE SUD REGION Total Population 739,565 Municipality Cayes Total Population 144,765 Urban 160,604 Urban 80,120 Rural 64,645 Rural 578,961 Municipality Coteaux Municipality Arniquet Municipality Ile à Vache Municipality Fond des Nègres Total Population 20,329 Total Population 27,847 Total Population 14,695 Total Population 31,886 Urban 6,292 Urban 1,735 Urban 1,880 Urban 5,121 Rural 14,057 Rural 26,112 Rural 12,815 Rural 26,765 Source: Institut Haïtien de Statistique et D’Informatique. 2012. Note: The cities showed in the present map are located in the Sud Region, with the exception of Fond Tortue, Fond des Nègres, and St. Michel/Dimizaine which are located in the Nippes Region. 4 www.wsp.org FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States Water management reform in a Annual growth of context of impending crisis Urban population 56% the population (2013) Previous water supply investments in the Sud Region were limited and lacked 1.4% monitoring from outside the communities. Rural population 44% As a consequence water services in this area deteriorated rapidly and the practice of receiving water free of cost became deeply ingrained, compromising even further their sustainability. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Health expenditure Mortality rate in children per capita (annual growth %) per capita (2012) under 5 per 1,000 live births (2013) (2013) Against this backdrop, a management model integrating domestic private sector participation -developed in Benin and 2.8% US$52.5 73 Madagascar with the support of the World Bank- was adapted and implemented; the DINEPA established deconcentrated agencies to sustain and supervise service providers; and volumetric billing schemes were introduced. The introduction of this OTHER INDICATORS new approach posed major challenges, but Poverty headcount ratio at Human Development Mobile cellular subscriptions demonstrated its potential as a solution national poverty line (2012) Index Ranks (2013)* per 100 people (2013) for the provision of sustainable drinking water distribution services in small towns National 58.5% of Haiti. Urban 40.6% #168 69 The reform process launched in 2009 facilitated the continuous presence of Rural 74.9% DINEPA at the regional and local levels with the creation of the OREPAs (Water and Sanitation Regional Offices), the URDs (Rural Departmental Units) and the TEPACs (Community Water ACCESS TO IMPROVED DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION (2012) and Sanitation Technicians); and the formulation of a new policy in response to the limited results reached by the National community-based management models for the provision of sustainable drinking 47.4% 74.6% water distribution services in small towns. 62.3% This paved the way for the development of a management model based on a user association —the Potable Water Supply Rural Urban and Sanitation Committees [Comité d’Approvisionnement en Eau Potable et Assainissement CAEPA]—; a professional water operator –the OP- contractually 16.3% 31% bound to the CAEPAs to operate the scheme and collect payments; and the 24.4% URD, responsible for sustaining and supervising both the CAEPAs and the OPs. National Sources: World Development Indicators (database), World Bank, Washington, DC (accesed November 15, 2014), http://databank.worldbank.org/ * United Nations Development Programme. 2014. Human Development Report 2014. www.wsp.org 5 FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States Figure 1: Actors in the EPAR Project Management Model PROFESSIONAL Fee Fee ces OPERATOR rvi De na er Se r t leg gem vis Ma d S up y an ati en ion or o vis Supp on t Payment for the service d of A Water service Transfer of Infrastructure Ownership Regulation and Support Rural Departmental Potable Water Supply Units and Sanitation (DINEPA URD) Committees (CAEPA) ion Aw uild ct are ing Ele B ne ss LOCAL POPULATION The local professional operator, a solution for most of them now demonstrate an adequate level of technical increasing access to sustainable drinking water knowledge, but still require capacity building in finance and services management. The OPs were selected by a committee composed of representatives The EPAR Project was the first of its kind with respect to from DINEPA, technical assistance personnel from the project integration of a private operator in rural areas of Haiti. As such, and the relevant CAEPA, with a view to ensuring that the OPs its implementation required ongoing adjustments. It became selected would be accepted by the users and that the selected evident that operating a scheme can only be a supplementary candidate possessed the required entrepreneurial skills. The activity of the OPs and will not be, in most of the cases, their predefined selection criteria included, among other elements, main source of income. They work with half a dozen employees: being a native of the town and being able to submit an operating plumbers, secretaries, kiosk vendors. They manage a customer business plan. This process identified operators from the local base of 100 to 300 households with metered water connections, population with diverse professional backgrounds, including (although a flat rate is charged in some cases), and a number of teachers, lawyers, fishermen and public servants. Selected OPs kiosks where payment is made per number of purchased bokit (19 received a basic technical and managerial training. As a result liter container). 6 www.wsp.org FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States Kiosks constructed by the EPAR project. Photo Jean-Martin Brault. Improved access to water the country in 2011 was 5 percent. If kiosk users (21 percent of households) and those purchasing water from neighbors with a Without a doubt, this project has improved access to drinking household connection (10 percent) are added to this figure, the water in benefiting communities. First, it has laid the necessary total population that have gained access to safe drinking water foundation for regular chlorination of the water. The SIS-KLOR1 through a network managed by a professional operator would monitoring program, which was established under the reform be 50,000 people. This rate will increase further once the new and has facilitated monitoring of residual chlorine over time, requests for connections recorded are met: 65 percent of kiosk demonstrated that the OPs regularly perform chlorination. client households have indicated that they are willing to connect. Ongoing provision of free chlorine by DINEPA and monitoring by the URD will help sustain this result over time. The project provided access to water for an additional 10,000 persons living in communities where the water distribution system In terms of access, the percentage of households connected to the was not managed by an OP, which means that around 51 percent water distribution system rose from 8 to 20 percent2 in benefiting of the households located in the targeted communities are enjoying communities, while the average in small towns and rural areas of access to safe drinking water thanks to the EPAR project. 1 SIS-KLOR is a real-time monitoring initiative whereby mobile water testing teams are able to transmit by SMS back to DINEPA the results of their sampling in camps and communities 2 Percentages calculated based on the registry of household connections of the professional operators and CAEPAs running the systems during the execution of the project from August 2007 to November 2010. www.wsp.org 7 FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States The connection fee or water rate charged was not the main reason Professional, local, and cost-effective management advanced by households for not requesting a household connection, which indicates that this increase in access was achieved while The operators have limited accounting skills, engage primarily maintaining affordable rates for the communities. in cash transactions that most often are not recorded and, when generated, financial statements are of very poor quality and usually limited to a cash balance. However the reconstruction of The project improved access to their financial statements demonstrated that they are achieving water for 60,000 people, that is, 51 tangible results: with an average sales volume of US$23 per year, percent of the residents of this area. per connected household or kiosk client, and US$30 for the most efficient professional operators, their compensation is expected to However, kiosks were not used as frequently as originally account for 25 percent of receipts. anticipated, as it was expected that each kiosk would serve approximately 150 households, in accordance with expressed user demand. In fact, management of these facilities proved challenging for the operators, who gradually abandoned them. The operators Table 1: Kiosks installed and rehabilitated were unable to provide uninterrupted service at each kiosk, and in the Sud region users who were unwilling to pay for the service, found an easy way to obtain water by forcing the abandoned kiosks open, without the operators having the means to persuade them to discontinue Scheme Number of Number of kiosks this practice. As a result, only 50 percent of the kiosks are being kiosks installed functioning at managed by the OPs, and it is estimated that 15 percent of the or rehabilitated project closure households are using the abandoned kiosks to obtain water. St. Michel/Dimizaine 9 5 Cavaillon 33 10 Figure 2. Trends in water access following implementation of the EPAR-Sud project Simon 2 1 60% Maniche 9 4 Chantal 13 13 50% Arniquet 6 2 40% Access to kiosks Coteaux 22 5 Access via resale of water to neighbors 30% Ile à Vache 6 0 Access to private water connection Fond des Nègres 12 12 20% Chardonnières 11 3 10% Total 123 55 0% Source: Elizabeth Kleemeier, EPAR project Implementation Completion Pre-project Post-project Report. Washington DC: World Bank, 2014. Source: Opa Diallo and Raphaël Torquebiau, “L’évaluation de l’implication *Note: All of the above schemes are located in the Sud Region, with du secteur professionnel local dans la desserte en eau en milieu rural en the exception of Fond des Nègres, and St. Michel/Dimizaine which are Haïti et évaluation de l’adaptabilité de ce nouveau modèle de gestion et located in the Nippes Region. Non-functioning kiosks have been closed de la facturation au volume à l’échelle nationale. Haïti: 2013.” mainly because of an insufficient number of paying customers to make service viable at these water points. 8 www.wsp.org FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States Standpipe rehabilitated by the EPAR project. Photo Jean-Martin Brault. These resources are used primarily to cover staff costs (41 percent), The operators attained the break-even which still appear to represent an area for potential savings relative point and have the resources to improve to actual operational requirements. However, 8 percent of the costs relate to infrastructure work, a significant improvement relative to sustainability and develop their services. the pre-project situation when almost no maintenance work was ever done on the schemes by the CAEPAs. Although these works According to their contractual obligations, the OPs must also most often entail repairs and no actual maintenance program is pay a fee equivalent to 15 percent and 4 percent of their monthly in place, the operators have the necessary potential to become sales to the concerned CAEPA (to cover their operation costs and proactive in infrastructure management. for the creation of a renewal fund) and to the OREPA (to cover the expenses related to the URD’s sustained supervision effort) The operators have also demonstrated their capacity to provide respectively. Nonetheless, the OREPAs have yet to open the new household connections and further increase access to water required bank account to receive these funds and payments to the services. However, this materialized as a result of the free provision CAEPAs, which are not made systematically, and are calculated as of a batch of meters under the project. The price of the water a percentage of the collected invoices instead of the invoiced water meters in Haiti –above USD 100-, the short contractual period volume. Moreover, these payments, when done, are usually made that the OP have to recover their investments -3 years- and the in cash and not registered in the accounting books of the CAEPAs. lack of support they receive from the CAEPAs and the URDs to reduce the delinquency rate, are preventing professional operators All told, the results of the evaluation show reasons to believe in the to further increase their client base. A long-term solution will have potential of the new management model introduced: Professional to be proposed by DINEPA to overcome this barrier, for example operators have been able to cover their operating cost, make some extending the duration of the management contract and/or leasing profit and finance corrective maintenance investments for around this equipment or through subsidized procurement. three years, while increasing the access to safe water through household connections. Moreover, they are providing the service to the satisfaction of the benefiting population. www.wsp.org 9 FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States In this sense, field surveys show that users in the towns that piloted and the general agreement among the surveyed population about this solution are very satisfied. In addition to the very high level of the benefits of volumetric billing in terms of fairness and ability user confidence in the quality of the water, users overwhelmingly to reduce water wastage. support the professional operator management model, including in towns where the operator’s contract has been terminated and In comparison, in light of the infrequent use of the kiosks and the management responsibilities have been assumed by the CAEPA. low revenue collection levels for services provided via individual household connections, the practice of reselling water to neighbors 80 percent of customers of should be reexamined. Some 37 percent of households with a professional operators expressed connection sell water to their neighbors, and the prices are similar to the ones charged for use of the kiosks. This practice, which their satisfaction with the service. had not been formally included in the project’s policy, provides 10 percent of households in targeted communities with access to Figure 3: Percentage of people satisfied with potable water. the quality of water The revenue collection rate for professional operators has reached an average of 50 percent, up to 66 percent in the best of the cases, a 100% rate that is still too low to ensure that water management can suffice as the OPs sole source of income. Moreover, this rate is enough 80% for the OPs to make some profit thanks to the provision of free inputs such as chlorine or an initial batch of meters by DINEPA. Connected households The success or failure of the professional operators is largely 60% Kiosk users dependent on the CAEPAs, organizations to which they are bound by an operating agreement and are legal entities elected to 40% manage the constructed water distribution systems. In fact, these committees have often sided with users against the professional operators, not only in particular with respect to the rejection of 20% a payment system based on volume used, but also with regard to cases of illegal connections or issues unrelated to the service. This is because the CAEPAs see themselves more like a user association 0% responsible for defending interests of the clients of the OP than as Pre-project Post-project the organization responsible for the provision of sustainable safe water distribution services in the long run through a delegation agreement with a professional operator. Source: Opa Diallo and Raphäel Torquebiau,“L’évaluation de l’implication du secteur professionnel local dans la desserte en eau en milieu rural en The operators need firm support from the authorities in the areas Haïti et évaluation de l’adaptabilité de ce nouveau modèle de gestion et of training and regulation. This is one of the goals of the reform de la facturation au volume à l’échelle nationale. Haïti: 2013.” with the creation of the URDs, which should provide specific training to the professional operators on technical and management aspects, and act as an independent mediation agent between the Challenges in achieving sustainability CAEPAs and the OPs. However, while the operators welcomed this support, it could not address all their shortcomings. The training Access to water services through individual household connections needs of the CAEPAs also remain unmet. Furthermore, owing to was expanded through the widespread installation of meters to the lack of human and logistical resources, the URD was unable to facilitate volumetric billing. However, volume-based payment assume its role as regulator in the most contentious cases where the schemes could not be mandatorily applied across the board. CAEPAs had imposed their will. The appropriate role of these three Rehabilitated schemes posed the first challenge, as a number of stakeholders still needs to be adjusted and their relations better former users refused to have meters installed. Having successfully formalized. In one case, a CAEPA stripped one of the professional blocked this initiative, they managed to prevail upon the CAEPAs operators of his functions without the URD’s knowledge. All the and the other users to join their cause. As a result, the users served other professional operators are seeking clarification regarding by some water schemes are not being billed based on volume of the conditions governing disconnection or possible imposition of water used, despite prior commitments made by the communities fines on customers. 10 www.wsp.org FIELD NOTE: Professionalizing Drinking Water Service Delivery in Small Towns of Haiti Fragile States Availability of Water Resources Assumptions made with respect to available water resources were inaccurate. Two sources that supply water to the schemes experienced longer low-flow periods than anticipated, thus leaving the schemes with an inadequate supply for three months. This situation will worsen with the expected increase in demand. Ongoing monitoring of the flow from the sources instead of the provision of a mere inventory of levels or separate measurements is necessary. Furthermore, no effective measure for protecting the sources was put in place, despite the emphasis placed on water quality by the project. Professional Operators’ Team in Arniquet. Photo Jean-Martin Brault. Conclusions and lessons learned • While the recruitment process paved the way for the • As a result of the project, there will be a real and sustainable introduction of operators who were viewed as legitimate by increase in the water supply to Haiti’s populations of the users, it could not attract candidates with the requisite benefitting communities of the Sud Region, thus providing financial and management skills. The URD needs time to improved access for most households. provide the support required to ensure that these operators improve their skills sufficiently. • The public-private partnership model used can be considered a success, even though more time is needed to • The conflicts that arose on the ground between the assess its sustainability and prove that the operators can professional operators and the CAEPAs or other local provide a service in a challenging environment. actors could not be resolved through the intervention of the URD, which lacks the resources and an adequate regulatory • The operators do not yet have sufficient contractual security structure to allow it to fully assume its role as regulator. to allow them to engage in long-term planning in terms of The appropriate role of these three stakeholders still needs business activities or infrastructure maintenance. to be adjusted and their relations better formalized. • Although the users overwhelmingly support the private • The assumptions made regarding available water resources operator model, these operators expend a lot of energy were inaccurate, and several towns experienced unexpected negotiating with them to obtain payment for connections periods of water shortage. This situation underscores or usage and manage local political interference. the need to go beyond merely providing an inventory of resources by conducting ongoing measurements of • Increasing the number of kiosks was not the appropriate their available flow, and to identify effective methods for solution for increasing access, and a large number of them protecting the sources. have gradually been abandoned by the operator. However, despite not being included in the project, the practice of • A long-term solution must be implemented in order to reselling water to neighbors has the potential to achieve the make the meters more affordable to the operators and thus same objectives. enable them to continue expanding their customer base. www.wsp.org 11 Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) Latin America and the Caribbean Region The World Bank Group wsplac@worldbank.org www.wsp.org | www.worldbank.org/water