Water supply and sanitation 

Many people live in areas where water is a scarce resource, and where there are conflicts over competing water uses. The situation is particularly serious for the health and livelihoods of poor communities
COWI offers services of pro-poor and gender sensitive approaches in water supply, hygiene and health education and sanitation. Our services include programme and project preparation for interventions that improve the lives and health of poor people by enhancing their access to water of drinking quality and for domestic use. We work towards solutions that reduce the burden on the lives of women and children in particular in fetching water, and work towards coordinated approaches that build capacities to plan and manage sustainable water supply and sanitation systems at community, regional and national levels.

Financial management and affordability studies

COWI provides consultancy services to strengthen the financial viability of water supply and sanitation systems, to ensure access and equity. We offer willingness-to-pay and affordability analyses and foster a demand-responsive approach based on informed choice of service level and cost recovering from users.
We offer services in all stages of the project cycle covering:

• Urban water supply and sanitation
• Rural water supply and sanitation
• Integrated water supply and sanitation and hygiene education
• Operations management
• Development of public-private partnerships
• Awareness-raising and education
• Consensus and capacity building
• Organisational development
• Monitoring and evaluation.