Direct subsidies are an increasingly popular means of making infrastructure services more affordable to the poor. Under the direct subsidy approach, governments pay part of the water bill of poor households that meet certain criteria. This approach was first used in water sector reforms in Chile...

Governments typically provide the water and sanitation sector with substantial amounts of public money. Monopoly power, public funds, and discretionary decisions, coupled with poor accountability, breed corruption. The best hope for reducing corruption in the water and sanitation sector is to...

The design of regulation for water supply and sanitation (WSS) services has tended to follow a check-box approach - diagnose the need, prescribe an independent regulator or similar model (often developed in a different sector or country), and hope for the best. This approach has not always...