Case Study
Costa Rica: institutional development for the long-term re-structuring of the rural water supply sector (2004)
In late 2003 Aguaconsult was invited to tender as part of an international bidding process to provide technical support to the Costa Rican government’s Institute for Water Supply and Sewerage (Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados or AyA).
Following the submission of a successful proposal, technical inputs were provided over the first half of 2004, focusing on the study and analysis of institutional aspects of the current organisation of AyA and the provision of rural water supply at national level.
Coverage levels for rural water supply in Costa Rica are relatively very high when compared to many other countries in Latin America and AyA has a long history of promoting the community-management model through the formation of community associations which are tasked with the administration and maintenance of systems.
However, as coverage has grown there has been limited investment in the support services required for community management, leading to a range of problems with the long-term sustainability of many systems.
At present AyA does not have the capacity to meet the technical, organisational and legal support needs of the some 1,800 systems currently in operation in the country; for example, approximately 85% of community associations do not have proper legal status which is a major impediment to obtaining loans for the maintenance and up-grading of system components.
Part of the solution to these problems identified by Aguaconsult during the course of this consultancy was the need for AyA to promote the formation of small water provision enterprises to take on the direct operation of systems, and particularly to help smaller communities who lack economies of scale.
The final report also recommended the formation of a dedicated national level entity to provide institutional follow-up support for rural communities in the long-term.
