Consumer Cooperatives for Delivery of Urban Water and Sanitation Services

To find the optimal delivery model for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, one must look beyond ownership structures to the practices and designs that support good performance. Consumer cooperatives are often attractive institutional models. This note focuses on a Bolivian cooperative that is one of the most successful water cooperatives in Latin America. Successful cooperatives focus on building internal technical and managerial capacity. Most are leaders in technical and organizational innovation. They monitor operations, standardize processes where possible, engage in business planning, and clearly define responsibilities. Management uses benchmarking to assess performance gaps. Outsourcing is normally low, because the incentive of secure employment is stronger than the potential savings to be had from outsourcing. However, because cooperatives are not bound by public procurement procedures, contracting can be done quickly when needed.