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Microcredit for water supply and sanitation is the application of microcredit to provide loans to small enterprises and households in order to increase access to an improved water source and sanitation in developing countries. While most investments in water supply and sanitation infrastructure are financed by the public sector, current investment levels are insufficient to achieve universal access. Commercial credit to public utilities is limited by low tariffs and insufficient cost recovery. Microcredits are a complementary or alternative approach to allow the poor to gain access to water supply and sanitation 〔(Loughborough University - Well Factsheet on Microfinance for Sanitation ) Originally compiled by Darren Saywell and updated by Catarina Fonseca, 2006〕〔(The Challenge of Financing Sanitation for meeting the Millennium Development Goals ) Meera Mehta and Andreas Knapp, 2004〕 Funding is either provided to small-scale independent water providers who generate an income stream from selling water or to households in order to finance house connections, plumbing installations in their houses, or various forms of on-site sanitation such as latrines. Many microfinance institutions still have only limited experience with financing investments in water supply and sanitation.〔 While there have been many pilot projects in both urban and rural areas, just a small number have been scaled up.〔( Financial Services for the Promotion of Poverty-oriented Water Supply and Sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa ) Brigitte Biesinger and Maren Richter, 2007〕〔(Household Credit for Water and Sanitation ) Robert C.G. Varley, USAID Environmental Health Project, 1995〕 Individual credits are repaid in part through cost-savings as a result of having a water connection which can significantly lower a family’s average water expenditures, if it previously had to rely on much more expensive water sold by water vendors. Water credits can also generate additional income by spending time for productive purposes that was previously spent fetching water. Investments in sanitation provide health benefits that can also translate into more time available for productive work.〔 There are three broad types of microcredit products in the water sector in urban and rural areas:〔(Assessing Microfinance for Water and Sanitation: Exploring Opportunities for Sustainable Scaling Up ) Meera Mehta, 2008,A study for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation〕 * Microcredits aiming to improve access to water supply and sanitation at household level, * Credits for small and medium enterprises for small water supply investments, and * Credits for urban services upgrading and shared facilities in low income areas. ==Household credits== Microcredits can be targeted specifically at water and sanitation, or general purpose microcredits are simply used for water and sanitation. In both cases, microcredits are typically used to finance household water and sewerage connections, bathrooms, toilets, latrines, rainwater harvesting tanks or water purifiers. They range from 30 to 250 USD with a tenure of generally less than three years. Microfinance institutions such as the Grameen Bank, the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and numerous microfinance institutions in India and Kenya, offer credits to individuals for water and sanitation facilities. NGOs that are not microfinance institutions, such as Dustha Shasthya Kendra (DSK) in Bangladesh or Community Integrated Development Initiatives in Uganda, also provide credits for water supply and sanitation. The potential market size is considered huge in both rural and urban areas and some of these water and sanitation schemes have achieved a significant scale. Nevertheless, compared to the microfinance institution’s overall size, they still play a minor role.〔 In 1999, all microfinance institutions in Bangladesh and more recently in Vietnam had reached only about 9 percent and 2.4 percent of rural households respectively. In both countries, the water and sanitation portfolio amounts to less than two percent of the microfinance institution’s portfolio in total. However, borrowers for water supply and sanitation comprised 30 percent of total borrowers for Grameen Bank and 10 percent of total borrowers from Vietnam Bank for Social Policies. For instance, the water and sanitation portfolio of the Indian microfinance institution SEWA Bank comprised 15 percent of all loans provided in the city of Admedabad over a period of five years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Microcredit for water supply and sanitation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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