Hydraulic ram pumps and Sling Pumps

Key Factors for Sustainable Cost Recovery1.2.3 What costs should be recovered?Once costs have been identified, it is essential to determine how and to what extent the communitywill cover or recover these. The following questions can be discussed with the community right fromthe start of the project and should preferably result in a mutual agreement:" Should only basic O&M costs be recovered?" Should initial investment costs be recovered?" Should replacement and rehabilitation costs be recovered?" Should costs of sanitation and wastewater management be included in the recovery cost system? Ifyes, is the community aware of the financial implications of integrating sanitation and water supplycosts?" Should the provision of the service aim for full cost recovery? If yes, can it be done in phases?The question of cost recovery of wastewater management should preferably be considered as part ofan integral strategy to ensure the availability of clean and safe water sources in the long term. Ifwastewater management is not taken into account, many water supply systems may have to treat waterat incremental costs (because of pollution and/or depletion of water sources), making it necessary torecover a major percentage of it from users and therefore raising tariffs. The inclusion of wastewatermanagement costs in a water tariff is very rare in rural and low-income urban areas, and this is thereason why the inclusion of wastewater and water management in one single tariff is not discussedhere. It does not mean that wastewater management should not be considered; in fact, it should bediscussed together between planners and communities, in order to determine its outcome. However,appropriate domestic and collective behaviour can contribute to better wastewater managementparticularly within the close habitat surroundings.The question of which costs should be recovered is often a dilemma for both planners andcommunities. The way out of the dilemma is to try to discuss this question, and to review variouspossible options. In the discussion below, “full cost recovery” means recovering O&M andreplacement costs, as well as part or all of investment costs, and “O&M costs” means coverage ofrecurrent costs of operation and maintenance only.Full costrecovery$ABCImmediate full cost recovery} Progressive full costrecoveryRecoveryof O&Mcosts onlyDERecovery of O&M costs onlyRecovery of O&M costsonly, with initial use ofsubsidiesTimeFigure 1:Cost recovery options13