Financial sustainability of urban water cycle services in developing countries: a case study in Mozambique Available to Purchase

A management strategy to achieve financial sustainability of urban water cycle services in developing countries is presented, based on the development of the Long Term Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Plan for the Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Administration (Administração de Infra-estruturas de Água e Saneamento (AIAS)) of Mozambique. AIAS is responsible for water supply and sanitation systems of 151 cities and towns (9.38 million inhabitants in 2015, 17.55 million expected in 2040). The needs in this sector are considerable, financial resources are scarce and, as a result, the Millennium Development Goals are still off track to be achieved. An integrated approach was applied to estimate the investments needs, considering differentiated levels of service depending on the urban area characteristics and taking into consideration the household income limitations, in order to achieve an economically sustainable increase in coverage and service level. The work developed resulted in an action plan aligned with the national strategy vision and adaptable to every city and town of Mozambique, including two decision support tools to enable stakeholders' decision making on potential investments: the Water and Wastewater Database (Base de Informação de Água e Saneamento) and the Dynamic Economic tool to support investments in water supply and sanitation services.