Strategies for Sustainable Financing of the Water Sector.

This Policy containing the Strategies for Sustainable Financing of the Water Sector is a sectoral document aiming to (i) secure stable and sufficient long-term financial resources for the water sector (water supply and wastewater services); and (ii) allocate them in a timely manner and in an appropriate form. It identifies two main needs to be met (i) funds for new capital investments including rehabilitation; and (ii) funds for operating costs. The overall goal should be to grow the absolute number of people receiving clean water and adequate wastewater services while respecting the rights and supplies of existing beneficiaries.
Target objectives for an efficient financial strategy are improved collections together with well-functioning financial and accounting systems. This can be achieved through (i) efficiency, at management and operation levels; (ii) seek for sources of funds, including user tariffs, Government funding, donor funds, self-funding, loans, indirect funding, community contributions, and fees; (iii) new investments, to be balanced with the needs for funding existing operations.
The Policy takes into consideration the interests of the poor people regarding water costs. As consequent measure to reduce poverty, also in rural areas, it suggests fair and reasonable tariffs applied in an equitable manner whose sustainability would be guaranteed by resorting to cross-subsidization across user groups e.g. large users subsidizing small users, certain user categories subsidizing others, certain areas subsidizing other areas etc.
As for the Governance, the Policy identifies the main actors designed for the management of the water sectors as (i) the PWA, to which a capable staff should be assigned to manage strategies for sustainable financing and to assist in ensuring that the strategies are adopted and implemented; (ii) municipalities, that should set up official units (if not already existing) to carry out water supply and wastewater activities separately from all other activities; (iii) community leaders in the refugee camps to solve the problem of tariffs and services not paid by the residents of the camps; and (iv) service providers, that should have a number of goals including efficient operations and good management.