Hydraulic ram pumps and Sling Pumps

OP-32-EHowever, differences within communities need to be looked at closely as well, as mentioned above.Giving a gender perspective to a project design can contribute hugely to improving equity. Thisperspective takes into account the social and economic differences between men and women.However, it cannot be separated from other social differences, notably those in marital status, classand income (van Wijk, 1998). In some communities women pay for the water, so a gender perspectivelooks at affordability and willingness to pay from the perspectives of men and of women. A genderperspective also pays attention to the management capacity of both men and women, notably in thecase of financial management and bookkeeping.How can equity be reached ?Price mechanisms should, in theory, effectively lead to a better distribution of resources amongindustrial, agricultural and domestic groups. However, the poor do not have access to the market at thesame level as other stakeholders, and prices can be a barrier to market accessibility, especially becauseof low affordability. Demand for improved services remains, however, high. There are other possibleways to try to provide water services in an equitable way, which could be grouped into the followingthree approaches:Application of a social targeted policy by:" using cross subsidies, where tariffs of more affluent parts of the community cover part of the costsfrom poorer neighbourhoods;" using government subsidies as part of the implementation of a social programme, as describedabove in the Mexican example;" setting a minimum ‘basic’ tariff for the first 20 to 40 litres of drinking water per capita and per day,as well as for small-scale irrigation for farming.Participation in service management by:" involving the poor in all stages of the project cycle and involving them in deciding on a costrecovery system best suited to their needs and capacity;" using local organisations that represent poor people in low-income urban areas to buy water in bulkdirectly from the water enterprise, under-cutting the high prices of kiosk owners and re-vendors.Introducing competition can, in the long run, ensure an optimum allocation of resources.Improving payment facilities by:" facilitating access to the payment site, which is often not convenient and too far from manycommunities;" allowing people to pay small amounts more frequently, since low-income households can rarelypay large lump sums;" allowing the community to pay partly in kind within the local economy;" developing or improving access to alternative financial sources, such as micro-credit schemes;• developing income-generating activities with the introduction of a new water point, to help poorercommunities to be better able to afford their system.Box 4. Cross subsidy in Venezuela favours the poorIn Caracas, Venezuela, users living in poor sections of the city pay a social tariff of 50 percent of thestandard tariff for a consumption level between 1 and 15 m 3 per month and 75 percent when theyconsume less than 40 m 3 . Other residential users are also subsidised paying 75 percent of the tariffif they consume less than 15 m 3 per month. However, all users including the poor pay 1.5 times thestandard tariff over their total consumption if they use more than 40 m 3 and twice the tariff if theyconsume more than 100 m 3 . Industries and commercial users pay 1.5 times the tariff up to aconsumption of 100 m 3 and twice the tariff if they consume more.Source: Rubinstein, J. (1999)12