The general findings of a path-breaking market study on access to safe water at the so-called Base of the Pyramid (BoP) were presented to a packed meeting of the Dutch safe water community on June 24. The study was a joint undertaking of the French consultancy Hystra, the Dutch consultancy BoP Information Centre and the Dutch water aid and leverage foundation Aqua for All. The latter agency is a founder of the 300in6 Initiative and formally hosts its management and secretariat.
The study was conducted from mid-2010 onwards, and in many ways sees its work as building upon the 300in6 study known as ‘Safe Water at the Base of the Pyramid: How to involve private initiatives in safe water solutions’. That study was supported by Aqua for All, Connect International, Safe Water International and SDC, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It is acclaimed as one of the first works on potential business models for appropriate solutions for rural and urban situations where there is no (safe) pipe.
Smart to the yard
The study led by Hystra catalogued a rich number of case studies of proven concepts and best business cases – some 200 in all – and recommendations for a market-based approach involving household filters, wells and pumps, water retail outlets and small-scale networks with yard and home connections. It examines how scaling-up and greater penetration of safe water supply can be achieved and the role of the private sector. It also looks at the imperative of mobilising social venture capital, of applying ‘smart’ start-up and capacity-building grants.
Many of the concrete recommendations resonated well in the well-known pragmatism of the Dutch water sector, represented by several government delegates, a wide raft of private sector players and civil society organisations.
With cooperation in their lifeblood, they welcomed the opportunity to steer away from fragmented, niche-rooted skills-sets, costly quality and mutual competition.
Instead, they were impressed by the thinking of the study in an integrated approach of new business models which the international water legacy titans do not, or cannot, offer.
How useful is a BoP utility?
Two clear ideas emerging from the study are the establishment of a BoP water utility company as model, and the creation of a water sector scale-up platform in developing countries. This would be warmly welcomed by both private sector and public sector bodies. The Dutch private sector representatives at the meeting were quick to see a potential role in such models. So too, with at least the same alacrity, were the government representatives from the recently re-structured Ministry for economic affairs, agriculture and innovation, and the development arm of foreign affairs. The recommendations have a great deal in common with the sector’s own preoccupations, and recent policy initiatives by foreign affairs on public-private partnerships and the sector’s Water Mondiaal plans. Similarly, the pronouncement of water as a strategically-vital focus (one of nine) of Netherlands’ future place in the world provides another close-fitting link to the study.
Aqua for All and the BoPInC are now using the recommendations as the basis for an action plan, together with key sector representatives. The nature of the detailed report to be published was set to be finalised in early July.
The meeting was hosted by DHV, a consultancy, in their Amersfoort headquarters in the Netherlands.
The above text is derived from the article ‘Presentatie bevindingen en aanbevelingen uit de Hystra studie’, published in the July 2011 issue of the Dutch-language eNewsletter ‘News for All’ circulated by Aqua for All.
Photo: J Beadsley/Oxfam, with thanks