SUSTAINABILITY OF POTABLE WATER SERVICES IN THE PHILIPPINES

Financial sustainability of rural water systems in the Philippines is evaluated based on a comparison of willingness to pay for improved wat er and the costs of service delivery. Willingness to pay estimates ind icate that user fees are unlikely to be sufficient to cover the full c ost of service and subsidies are necessary, at least for a major porti on of capital costs, or the Water systems will become unsustainable be cause of insufficient resources. Sustainability is more probable when care is exercised in selecting villages for improved water services. E conomies of scale lead to lower unit costs in larger villages. Willing ness to pay is greater for household connections than for public fauce ts. Willingness to pay increases with income and wealth, family size, education, and dissatisfaction with traditional water sources.