Tapping the Market: Opportunities for Domestic Investments in Sanitation for the Poor

Tapping the Market: Opportunities for Domestic Investments in Sanitation for the Poor, 2013. Conference Edition.

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World Bank; WSP; IFIC.

The current market for improved on-site sanitation services in the four countries is large: supplying new systems and replacing old ones is conservatively estimated to be worth US$300 million a year. But the potential market is much larger: one-time sales of improved sanitation facilities to the 228 million people without access are worth at least US$2.6 billion.

Poor people alone would account for sales of about US$700 million. New customers would increase the replacement market to about US$550 million a year. Private sector activity associated with the market is not limited to the installation of latrines and toilets. The domestic private sector in these countries is engaged in a range of activities, including wholesale and retail sales of materials and components, the manufacture of prefabricated cement products used to build latrines and toilets, and the provision of advice on and the design of latrines and toilets.

Some enterprises also offer financing facilities or are engaged in related services, such as repairs, pit emptying, and septage disposal, which have the potential to be sizable business opportunities (the potential market for truck-based pit emptying in Indonesia is about $100 million a year, for example).

The study’s recommendations focus primarily on the constraints inherent in current technologies and in the supply chains that support provision of on-site sanitation services. It is these constraints that lead to households being offered products and services that they are not very interested in buying. The recommendations are aimed at governments, development partners, and industry.