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The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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Water and sanitation services for the urban poor: small-scale providers (pdf 480kb)

This paper describes twenty small private providers from community-based businesses, to NGOs, to commercial entrepreneurs, working in the water supply and sanitation sector in Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and Asia.

It describes the main characteristics of small providers - individual initiative, flexibility, adaptability to the market in terms of financial arrangements, technical options and outreach. It also underlines serious issues of complementarity and mini-monopolies in the context of scarcity.

In conculsion, it is stated that the market for provision of water and sanitation services to marginal urban communities needs to be worked at from both ends towards the middle, rather than splitting off small providers from larger enterprises.

 

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