13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Kampala, Uganda, 13 to 15 April 2010International Symposium on Sustainable Rural Water Services

What’s in a service? Using water service ladders in life-cycle cost analysis

Dr. Patrick MoriartyIRC, Ghana

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

A five year action research programme.

Working in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique and India (Andhra Pradesh).

Researching the FULL Life-Cycle Costs (LCC) of providing Rural and Peri-Urban (Domestic) Water and Sanitation Services, and ….

Identifying ways in which this information can be used to improve service delivery

Description of programme

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Disaggregated Life Cycle Costs

Capital expendi-ture

Operational and minor mainte-

nance expendi-ture

Capital main-tenance ex-penditureDirect support

costs

Indirect support cost

Costs of capital

Capital expenditure (CapEx): hardware and software

Operational and minor maintenance expenditure (OpEx)

Capital maintenance expenditure (CapManEx)– rehabilitation, replacement

Direct support costs – post construction activities, household expenditures

Indirect support cost – macro level planning and policy formulation

Costs of capital – costs of loans

Life Cycle Costs Components

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

A water service is the water provided to people… typically defined in terms of:quantity and quality; accessibility and reliability

Service ≠ Technologythough there are strong links between the two:Hand-pumps normally represent one level of service;Taps in houses another.

What is a domestic water service?

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

A service level is a group of indicators that together establish a normative benchmark for service delivery. (e.g. 20l/p/d of WHO quality water within 500m of the dwelling and shared by no more than 300 people)

A service ladder is a series of service levels grouped to convey the impression (or intention) of progress from one level to the next.

Establishing service levels is a political process.

Service levels and ladders

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Water service levels

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Piped water on premises: Piped household water connection located

inside the user's dwelling,

Other improved drinking water sources: Public taps or standpipes, tube wells or

boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs or rainwater collection.

Unimproved drinking water sources: Unprotected dug well, unprotected spring, cart

with small tank/drum, surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation

channels), and bottled water.

Improved

Piped

Unimproved

Existing JMP ladder

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

The WASHCost Water Service Ladder

High service: people access a minimum of 60l/c/d of high quality

water on demand

Intermediate service: people access a minimum of 40l/c/d of acceptable quality water from an improved source spending no more that 30 minutes per day

Basic service: people access a minimum of 20l/c/d of acceptable quality water from an improved source spending no more that 30 minutes per day

Sub-standard service: people access a service that is an improvement on having no service at all, but fails to meet the basic standard on one or more criteria

No service: people access water from insecure or unimproved sources, or sources that are too distant, time consuming or are of poor quality

Intermediate

High

No service

Sub-standard

Basic

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Quantity (l/c/d) Quality Accessibility

(min/c/d) Reliability Status

High >60 Good <10

Reliable/unreliable Improved

Intermediate >40

Acceptable

3030Basic

(normative) >20

Sub-standard >5 60

No service <5 Unacceptable >60 Unreliable/unsecure

Unimproved

WASHCost proposed indicators

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Indicator Mozambique Ghana Burkina Faso India

AccessDistanceNo normCrowding< 500 people

Distance< 500 mCrowdingBH < 300 peopleW < 150 peopleSP < 300 people

DistancePS <1000 mSS <500 mCrowdingSP < 300 peopleBP < 10 peoplePDC < 100 peopleBF < 1000 people

Distance< 1600m horizontal< 100m vertical (in hilly area)CrowdingHP/SP < 250 peopleSocial exclusion

Quantity 20 lpcd PS - 20 lpcdHC - 60 lpcd

PS - 20 lpcdHC - 40-60 lpcd

40 lpcd70 lpcd (with high livestock density)

Quality WHO guidelines Ghana Standards WHO guidelines Bureau of Indian Standard

Reliability Nothing definedRural – nothing definedSS % time available >95%

Nothing defined Security conceptAt least once in a day

Service levels in WASHCost countries

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Coverage:Access (population): YesAccess (distance): NoReliability: No??? (none working when visited)Quantity: No/Yes?? (average wet/dry – domestic/non-domestic)

Example from Ghana

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

To compare the costs of services it is first necessary to agree on a definition of the service.

A generic service ladder has been developed based on examples of norms used in the WASHCost countries and linked to the JMP ladder.

The usefulness of the service ladder will be further tested by WASHCost.

Conclusions and next steps

13/04/2010 Dr. Patrick Moriarty

Thank You

For more information:www.washcost.infoWorking paper no.2