Access to clean water is an emotive issue in developing countries that sometimes leads to civil unrest and major social problems. The SEED-winning project ‘Water for All’ was inspired following the well-documented ‘water wars’ in Cochabamba. The municipal water company, a private consortium, the local community and a non-profit, micro-credit foundation are working together to create community-owned secondary water distributions in poor peri-urban areas of Cochabamba.

In the suburban areas of Cochabamba, the municipal water company, SEMAPA, lacked the finance to build secondary water distribution networks, leaving hundreds of homes without a connection to the main water supply. In response, local communities have organized themselves into “Water Committees”, but their attempts to build their own water networks have taken place in an uncoordinated, inefficient way. Agua Tuya/PLASTIFORTE, a private consortium, has been manufacturing pipes and building water distribution systems for the Water Committees for the past eight years, but the work has not been coordinated with the water company. The Agua Para Todos initiative takes the pieces of the puzzle and recombines them in an innovative partnership model.

Water for All in numbers

• Total Investment [USD] 1,219,134
• Total Investment by the Community or neighborhood [USD] 521,972
• Total Investment by the Municipality [USD] 697,162
• Total Number of Projects Completed 34
• Total Number of Beneficiary Families 4,376