Eau & Vie, Philippines / Bangladesh
Social Business for Drinking Water
The Eau & Vie project aims at establishing
and running a water network in the slums of Ilo Ilo, where only 16%
of the inhabitants are connected to the municipal network. The
others all have to buy their water from street peddlers at a price
15 times higher than the regular one. Next to setting up the
network, a sanitation programme will also take place with the
construction of latrines and community showers to improve the
sanitary conditions, with accompanying hygiene education
programmes. Last, the water network will include fire hydrants so
as to contribute to fire prevention in these densely populated
areas.
The water will be bulk-purchased – reaching
317,000 m3 annually as of 2011 at € 0.17/m3 –
to the local water company through a main metre, sold back at an
affordable price (€ 0.80/m3) to the beneficiaries
through a surface PVC network and individual water metres. The
money collection will be organized according to a similar
methodology as in microcredit payments, in partnership with a local
micro-credit NGO. The money-collection system and the network
maintenance shall also provide several job opportunities to people
from the slum.
Tubig Pag Asa (TPA, a local small-scale social
water operator) will manage the water equipments throughout
the concession period (10 years), after which the public operator
shall take over. The sanitation part of the programme will be
carried out by Water & Life Philippines – the local branch of
Eau & Vie – in partnership with a local training NGO
specialized in community training programmes.
Today, more than 200 families have access to running water
and at a very affordable price.