Morocco: Sanitation in Scale Up of Rural Water OBA Schemes

This activity suppported the expansion of access to water for poor households in rural areas of Morocco through technical assistance to scale up the implementation of OBA water schemes based on the delegation by national utility ONEP of the provision of water services to small-scale private operators.

Focus was on the three following activities:

1) Collect initial lessons learned from setting up the first OBA rural water pilot launched in Jorf El Melha area, in terms of the contract structure, promotion strategy and optimal risks allocation, to maximize the potential interest of local investors and competition for future similar projects;

2) Scale up the proposed approach in 3 to 5 additional projects, ensuring that this new scheme is duly tested over a variety of local conditions and private partners, thereby reducing the risk that local specificities or the poor performance by one private investor lead to wrongful conclusions over the feasibility of the approach, and the end of ONEPs plans for rural OBA;

3) Help ONEP develop a broader nationwide strategy based on generalizing OBA for expanding water supply in rural areas through house connections.