In parts of the UK the Energy Saving Trust is being funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to pilot the Pay As You Save (PAYS) scheme which “is an innovative finance solution that will give households the opportunity to invest in energy efficiency (such as solid wall insulation) and microgeneration technologies (such as solar panels) in their homes with no upfront cost. Householders will make repayments spread over a long enough period so that repayments are lower than their predicted energy bill savings, meaning financial and carbon savings are made from day one [emphasis added].”
Why do I draw attention to this? Well, it’s actually a lesson for water and sewerage utilities in developing companies how not to charge massive upfront connection fees – especially for the poor. In a manner somewhat analogous to PAYS, customers can simply either repay a loan for their connection fee as a small monthly surcharge on their water and sewerage bill (simplified sewerage, of course) or pay a slightly higher tariff. Read what the Asian Development Bank has to say on connection charges here.
No excuses: improve health of the poor in high-density urban areas by piping water into their homes and taking the wastewater out!
About Me
- Duncan Mara
- University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- I'm an emeritus professor of civil engineering at the University of Leeds in England. I've been working on low-cost sanitation in developing countries since the mid-1970s, and also on low-cost wastewater treatment and reuse. I was a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, 1970-73 and then a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee, Scotland, 1974-79 before moving to Leeds in late 1979. I was a visiting professor of sanitary engineering at the Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Campina Grande, northeast Brazil, during 1976-95, and since 1996 I have been a visiting professor of environmental engineering at the Instituto Cinara, Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia.