_Designing Pro-poor Water and Sewer Concessions_ _Kristin Komives_ connections to submit all of these doculments. In addition, SAMAPA required that households obtain municipal permission to open a trench in a public right of way. Because communities often bought materials and installed the connections themselves, households also had to request lists of approved materials from SAMAPA inspectors and arrange for visits from the inspectors at various points in the installation process. In sum, the connection process under SAMAPA was a confusing, time-consuming, and expensive process; in a recent study of El Alto households, more households cited _trdmites,_ or bureaucratic procedures, than cost as the reason they had not connected to the water supply network.<sup>32</sup> One of Aguas del Illimani's first procedural changes was to simplify this application and connection process. Within weeks of taking over, the company moved all of the officials who had to sign off on applications into one room. Applicants then knew exactly where to go to apply for a connection and could watch their paperwork move from official to official. This simple change significantly reduced the time required to solicit a connection. Aguas del Illimani has since further simplified the application process. The company eliminated the need for each applicant to individually solicit permission from the municipality to open a trench; the utility itself now solicits the permission for groups of applicants. Aguas del Illimani has also taken advantage of a contract provision about the required _plano sanitario:_ the contract states that the concessionaire must solicit the _plano sanitario,_ but a household's failure to submit the _plano_ does not relieve the concessionaire of the obligation to connect the household to the water or sewer system.<sup>33</sup> This would seem to suggest that the expansion mandate takes precedence over the _plano sanitario_ requirement.<sup>34</sup> Aguas del Illimani informs households of the _plano sanitario_ requirement, but does not delay the connection or take any action if the households fails to submit the plan within the timeframe Aguas del Illimani sets.

Changes like this help make service expansion less costly and more attractive to the utility, and also make service more accessible to households. The out-of-pocket expenses that applicants now incur in the application process are lower. Aguas del Illimani has also reduced the time costs by simplifying and shortening the application procedure. All new applicants (rich and poor) will benefit from these changes.

# HOW MANY AND WHEN: expansion mandates

A second type of performance requirement in concession contracts is expansion mandates. Expansion mandates define private concessionaires' obligation to expand their service area; they tell the concessionaire how many new connections the company must make and by what date the connections must be made. If enforceable and enforced, expansion mandates set the minimum acceptable expansion rate and have the potential to induce utilities to connect customers they might otherwise be reluctant to serve. Including expansion mandates in a concession contract is not, however, a guarantee that concessionaires will actually meet the requirements. Experience with water and sewer concessions in other countries has shown that contract provisions (such as

> 32 Centro de Estudios y Proyectos of Bolivia, 1998.

> 33 Concession contract, appendix 2.

> **34** The 1992 Regulations also allow utilities to make exceptions to the _plano sanitario_ requirement in certain cases: in special cases where the company can verify that the house has only the minimum sanitary fixtures, the company can eliminate the _plano_ requirement or can give **the** household a window of time within which to submit the _plano._

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