Bankable solutions

For the first time, the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance (FSMA) will partner with the African Water Association to co-host the 21st AfWA Congress & Exhibition and the 7th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, to bring together water and sanitation in this joint event, including faecal sludge management.

Dr Károly Kovács, the President of the Hungarian Water Partnership, and head of our group gave a professional presentation at the international congress which attracted more than 3000 participants. In his professional presentation, he presented sustainable and affordable solutions to the investment needs of water and wastewater infrastructure that can contribute effectively to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Even in Europe water utility infrastructure management and development are facing profound financing gaps. The reconstruction of the ageing water infrastructure is underfinanced and underperforming. Capital costs are not or are just partly included in tariffs, nor covered by public spending. 
The financial resources needed to finance city-level WASH investments indicated in the UNEP City-Level Decoupling Report (22.600 billion USD) are unrealistic to be found and invested! 

The alternative “near-to-consumer” solutions with an investment cost for drinking water provision and liquid waste handling is less than 70.- €/capita, the total capital needed for 4 billion people living in less developed cities and rural areas will be only 280 billion USD.

In terms of drinking water treatment solutions, he pointed out in his presentation that in areas where there is no adequate network or where the quality of existing networks is not good enough, near-to-consumer technologies can provide the solution to ensure at least 3 litres of healthy drinking water per person per day for a healthy life. 

Our PurAID® technology, as a near-to-consumer technology, is the perfect solution in these areas. There is no need to build pipelines, we can provide a safe, stable water supply at an investment value of less than €25 per capita instead of the €500-2,500 per capita per year experienced in the developed world, and at an operating and return on investment cost of less than €5 per capita per year instead of the €35-70 per capita per year of operation cost experienced in the developed world.

The presentation was based on large-scale detailed evaluations. The solutions that were presented are based on affordable and sustainable WASH approaches and solutions that are proven and can be attractive enough for the private sector as well. The presentation focused on solutions, both for drinking water provision and liquid waste handling, for communities without adequate water supply or sewerage networks. 

The Impact of the implementation of the alternative “near the consumer” solution will be: 

• reduction of required investment capital by nearly 99%, 
• safe drinking water provision for less than 5.-€/person/year,
• liquid waste management, and purification service of less than 10.- €/person/year, 
• affordable WASH services, with tariffs including initial capital costs.
• return on the invested capital >> involvement of private capital.

In his presentation, Dr Károly Kovács stressed that the sustainability of water infrastructure development requires that public funding is complemented by private investment. To this end, near-to-costumer solutions provide sufficiently profitable, bankable and affordable investment opportunities, which have been effective in helping developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as soon as possible.