Resource information
Convenient access to safe water is
central to human health and development. Water-borne disease
remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the
world, much of which could be eliminated by a combination of
better water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH). The WHO
estimates that around 502 000 deaths a year in low and
middle income countries from diarrheal disease are
attributable to unsafe water, and that over 1 000 children
under 5 die each day from diarrheal disease caused by
inadequate WASH. UNWomen estimates that in Sub-Saharan
Africa alone, women and girls spend 40 billion hours a year
collecting water, the time valued at around $20 billion a
year. Sustainable development goal no. 6 ‘ensure
availability and sustainable management of water and
sanitation for all’ creates a framework for tackling the
challenge of mobilizing the large investments required and
making WaSH available at affordable prices. The purpose of
the study on which this report is based is to analyze,
capture and synthesize lessons learned from closed GPOBA
water projects in order to evaluate the impact of the
subsidy schemes and inform the scale-up and replication of
OBA approaches. These lessons offer insight to successes and
failures of project design and implementation as well as
solutions to more complex projects and/or less tested environments.
