NIGER’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE The urban water reform resulted in significant increases in access to piped water and standposts, and improvements in the sector’s operational and financial performance and service quality. In 1998 the access to piped water and standposts in urban areas was 27 and 37 percent of the population, respectively. The national water utility (SNE) was overstaffed and its financial situation undermined by inadequate cost-recovery policies and the accumulation of arrears from public customers—by 2000 about $12 million, equivalent to 125 percent of its revenue. The lack of investment resulted in a substantial backlog, leading to frequent water shortages. In 2006 piped water and standposts were expanded to 35 and 56 percent of the population, respectively. In the 10 years following the concession, systems losses declined progressively from 22 percent in 2001 to 16 percent in 2010, not only below the average of other LICs but even below the international benchmark of 20 percent of a well-performing utility. Collection ratios increased from 80 percent of all bills to 97 percent over those years, about the average collection ratio of other LICs (tables 6 and 7). Connections per employee rose from 116 to 184. Until 2006 regular tariff adjustments were made, helping compensate the increase in the unit total cost of production from 58 cents in 2001 to 82 cents in 2009 (table 11).<sup>9</sup> The continuity of water supply was augmented from 18 hours to 24 hours between 2001 and 2009.

**Table 11. Evolution of operational indicators associated with SPEN, Niger**

|Year|Water delivered<br>(million m<sup>3</sup>/year)|System<br>losses<br>(%)|Collection<br>ratio<br>(%)|Average<br>total cost<br>($/m<sup>3</sup>)|Average<br>effective tariff<br>($/m<sup>3</sup>)|Total hidden<br>costs<br>($ million/year)|Total hidden<br>costs<br>(% revenues )|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|2001|32|22|80|0.58|0.27|8|88|
|2002|35|17|89|0.57|0.30|9|91|
|2003|36|17|94|0.80|0.36|14|121|
|2004|39|17|92|0.80|0.41|14|95|
|2005|42|19|88|0.82|0.47|14|75|
|2006|43|17|97|0.82|0.50|12|63|
|2007|47|17|90|0.82|0.55|13|59|
|2008|49|15|92|0.82|0.55|13|49|
|2009|52|16|97|0.82|0.55|13|50|

_Source:_ Derived from Briceño-Garmendia, Smits, and Foster (2009). _Note:_ SPEN = Société de Patrimoine des Eaux du Niger.

SPEN’s improvements in operational and financial performance have led to decreasing hidden costs. Whereas in 2001 hidden costs represented 88 percent of SPEN’s revenues, in 2009 they represented around 50 percent of the revenues, a level comparable to other utilities in the region (figure 12b). In 2003 hidden costs reached the highest point in the period 2001–09 due to an important increase in the average total costs compounded by a relatively low average effective tariff (table 11).

> 9 Since January 2006 the published water tariffs have not been adjusted (see effective residential water tariff at 10 m<sup>3</sup> and nonresidential at 100 m<sup>3</sup> in table 10). But due to changes in the composition of the total billings and total water consumption among residential and nonresidential customers, the average effective tariff per cubic meter indeed experienced an increase from 50 cents in 2006 to 55 cents in 2007 (see table 11).

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