Expanding Water and Sanitation Services to Low-Income Households: The Case of the La Paz-El Alto Concession
Author: Kristin Komives and Penelope J. Brook Cowen Date: 4/1/1999 (PDF, 200KB)
Bolivia's first major contract for private participation in the water sector was implemented in 1997. This was a twenty-five-year concession for the neighboring cities of La Paz and El Alto. To date the La Paz-El Alto concessionaire has met its service expansion obligations. But certain features of the contract could make it unnecessarily difficult to achieve the broad objective of universal service--as well as unnecessarily painful for some households. This Note explains why.