Thinking Outside the Pipeline : Venturing into Distributed Off-Grid Water Markets
Traditionally, International Finance Corporation (IFC) engagement in the water sector has focused on large municipal infrastructure projects, where individual transactions are of sufficient scale to attract commercial project finance. Such projects...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/11/13190422/thinking-outside-pipeline-venturing-distributed-off-grid-water-markets http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10461 |
| Summary: | Traditionally, International Finance
Corporation (IFC) engagement in the water sector has focused
on large municipal infrastructure projects, where individual
transactions are of sufficient scale to attract commercial
project finance. Such projects, involving capital-intensive
network infrastructure, can often be commercially attractive
but have generally failed to provide access to poorer
consumers living outside of formal urban centers. So what
about the 'base of the pyramid' populations that
those large utility systems fail to reach, rural
communities, and sometimes poorer urban customers living
within informal settlements and rapidly growing peri-urban
areas? New business models are needed, adapted to the
reality of water-supply necessities in the developing world,
but with the economies of scale required to achieve
financial sustainability. This smart lesson describes some
early ventures by IFC to invest in and develop market
opportunities in the challenging but potentially
far-reaching area of distributed off-grid water supplies. |
|---|