Applying the life-cycle costs approach to sanitation : costs and service levels in Andhra Pradesh (India), Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique

This briefing note presents an application of the life-cycle costs (LCCA) approach to sanitation in rural and peri-urban areas in four different countries – Andhra Pradesh (India), Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique. It reports key findings on the comparison of the financial costs of a range of traditional and improved latrines and the quality of service delivered to users. Limited information is available in any of the four countries surveyed on the current scale of expenditure made by governments and users on the construction and maintenance of different types of latrines. Even less is known about what it costs to deliver a desired level of service, e.g. cost to achieve the national norms. However, understanding the relationship between cost and quality of service contributes to improved planning and implementation of appropriate, cost-effective sanitation services. This briefing note reports on how the costs and the quality of service delivery vary within and between Andhra Pradesh (India), Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique, where existing data has been collected and analysed. Given the lack of sustainability and limited records on recurrent costs of many of the systems surveyed in these countries, the reported recurrent costs discussed here do not represent the ideal spending required to guarantee that services will last. Rather, they represent the expenditure on the current level of sanitation services achieved. Knowing the actual expenditure and improving existing accounting practices is the first step towards determining the ideal expenditure required to achieve sustainable services that meet national norms. [authors abstract]

305.2, 305.40