Progress in urban water supply andsanitation has been slow over the past few decades. Thesector suffers from issues of equity and efficiency. Today,more than 780 million people are still without access toimproved sources of water, and 2.5 billion lack improvedsanitation. Those average figures mask huge disparitiesbetween the rich and the poor, the poor consistently haveless access to reliable services than the non-poor. Eventhose who do have networked service often suffer fromirregular service and poorly maintained infrastructure. Asearch of more than 12,000 observations on the water utilitybenchmarking website, the International Benchmarking Networkfor Water and Sanitation Utilities (IBNET), indicates that37 percent of water utilities in the developing world do noteven cover operations and maintenance costs from theirinternal revenue. Overall, political economy analysisprovides a practical and useful operational tool that WorldBank task team leaders and other urban water specialists canemploy in their sector and project work.
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