Socio-Economic Assessment In Water And Sanitation

SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT IN WATER AND SANITATION: ANALYSIS OF IMPACT ON POVERTY AND VALUATION OF BENEFITS
A. Montoya1 (alvaro.montoyar@uah.es), D. Azqueta1 (diego.azqueta@uah.es), J. Barbiche2 (jcbarbiche@achesp.org)
1 Department of Economics, University of Alcalá. Plaza de la Victoria 3, Alcalá de Henares 28802, Spain 2 Department of Water and Sanitation, Action against Hunger – Spain. CalleCaracas 6, 1º, Madrid 28010, Spain

Abstract
Water and sanitation actions executed by international cooperation nongovernmental organizations (NGO) in poor countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America constitute a “laboratory” within which is possible to study the crossed behavior of several variables associated to trinomial environment-povertydevelopment. On this argument, the impact of awater development project performed by the NGO Action against Hunger – Spain, in terms of poverty reduction within a rural community stricken by armed conflict in Colombia was assessed. The methodological approach to problem was made via the Water Poverty Index (WPI), a numeric index that captures the most relevant factors of the interaction waterpoverty. WPI is structured in five components(Resources, Access, Capacity, Use and Environment) and each of them combines various subcomponents. WPI allows to relate a human group poverty situation (in a wide sense of concept) with the water services conditions, and to make spatial and temporal comparisons. Knowing the effect of an international cooperation project in water and sanitation on addressees’ life conditions, given their specialvulnerability as conflict victims, means an additional value to the intervention’s purpose. Furthermore, a socioeconomic valuing of project was carried out. The analysis covered several impact types and it was developed for two recipient subgroups (semi-urban and rural inhabitants). The indicators (present net value, return rate and benefit-cost ratio) showed an unequal performance depending on actionitem, and a large asymmetry between two collectives on investments and benefits was checked. These outcomes could be extrapolated or adapted to other similar geographic, natural and social environments. Key words: Millennium Development Goals, Poverty, International Cooperation, Water Poverty Index; Social Cost Benefit Analysis. Colombia

Introduction
In order to achieve the MillenniumDevelopment Goals, and given the increasing economic and politic significance of the international cooperation in the water and sanitation field, it is required to evaluate the effect of these development projects on poverty, and to estimate or at least to infer an approximate magnitude of costs and benefits of such actions for all the implied agents, both in North as in South (donors, NGO, governments,communities). This was the justification to carry out the appraisal of impact on poverty and economic valuing of a project of hydraulic development and community strengthening, executed in 2004 by the NGO Action against Hunger – Spain (ACF-E due its French acronym) funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID due its Spanish acronym), in eight rural villages ofthe municipality of Moñitos (Córdoba – Colombia). It is well known that water and sanitation projects have an important positive impact upon poverty in the recipient communities. From the point of view of decision makers, however, it is important to identify the different components of this benefit, and see how they are related to the different aspects of each project, in order to increase theefficiency of investment. The Water Poverty Index is a powerful tool in this sense, but it may well be complemented with a more thoughtful analysis of the social profitability of the investment. The point is illustrated with the help of a case study in Northern Colombia.

Methods
Case study Area Communities of eight rural localities in Moñitos municipality (Córdoba department, Colombia): 4.400...