Does Community Involvement Improve Performance of Water Supply Projects? Evidence from the Philippines (Activity #064)

Background There is limited information that may enable us to evaluate the effectiveness of community involvement in increasing the demand responsiveness of water supply projects and constraints faced by households in connecting to piped water supply systems. The Philippines provides an ideal setting for developing our knowledge and building capacity in this area. Since 1999, the World Bank has been assisting the Government of the Philippines (GOP) in testing demand-based approaches to water supply and sanitation (WSS). Until today, nine municipalities have signed on to ‘willingness to connect’ (WTC) forms, which require that 60 per cent of the community agrees to connect before investments go forward. With these communities as a focus, this activity conducts operational research on the household decision – whether or not to connect to piped water system and evaluates the effectiveness of community/user involvement in the design of water supply initiatives in the Philippines. Objectives The activity aims to explore (a) the effectiveness of community involvement in increasing the demand responsiveness of water supply projects and (b) the dynamics of decision-making in resource scarce households regarding whether or not to connect to the piped water system. Activities The activity includes: 1. Interviews with key stakeholders;

2. Design and implementation of detailed survey instrument to evaluate household responses to water supply improvements;

3. Analysis of key factors determining why some households connect to the piped water system and others do not; and

4. Preparation of a paper that summarizes lessons learned in a practical manner for use in project design and implementation.

Partners The project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. Lessons Learned The activity was completed and some of the key findings are: Role of community involvement in the decision to connect Community involvement had a positive impact on

the individual decision to connect to water supply

projects. The communities were not consulted but

were informed on key areas such as water price

and tariff, location and scale of project and the

type of service provider. Economic viability of the

project was the governing factor, the proposed

price was a ‘take it or leave it price’. However, the

communities were promised a reduction in price

once project loans were repaid. Despite this, the

project acceptance was high for both connected

and non-connected households.

How communities choose between connection and no connection? Besides community involvement, factors that influenced the decision to connect were household incomes, presence of extended

families, education and age. All these factors positively influenced the decision to connect.

Prime reasons for non-connection were: The tariff seemed to be too high and the

connection was too expensive Satisfied with their existing sources of water. The service was not extended in their area.

Amongst the communities that are not connected, a high percentage said they would be willing to connect if the service was provided in their area. Project Impacts

The decision to connect did not necessarily mean

an increase in consumption of water from the

connections. The main reason for this was the high

tariff. Households consumed more water after the

project, but despite the presence of piped water,

they continued to depend on multiple sources

such as bore holes to circumvent the high water

tariffs and cope with the poor quality of water. The

health and sanitation situation has remained the

same for most of the project areas and has in fact

deteriorated in some areas, though it cannot be

directly attributed to the water quality.

At present, all utilities are unprofitable. While they could at best cover salaries and maintenance costs of the system, loan repayments are charged to the LGU’s internal revenue allotment (IRA)—at the expense of other development activities in these various LGUs (Local Government Units). This is happening because the projected consumption rates are not being realized (owing to alternate sources of water)

Outputs The implementation of the activity started in December 2002. In August 2003, a field trip was undertaken to gather secondary data for the evaluation of urban water supply project performance in the Philippines. A household survey was designed, field tested, and administered to gather primary data on the impact of community participation on the performance of water supply projects in secondary cities. The World Bank Group. Community Involvement and Private Partnership in Infrastructure Delivery: Urban Water Supply in the Philippines. Draft. June 2004.

BNWP Activity #064 Title: Does Community

Involvement Improve Performance of Water Supply Projects? Evidence from the Philippines.

Task Manager: Somik V. Lall BNWP Financing: 46,749 USD Co-Financing: None