In this 1-hour online course, you will learn how to make key decisions and apply best practices for setting up a cost recovery mechanism that will generate resources to maintain and sustain water systems for communities with water challenges. As you go through the course, you will be guided by a WASH team and the community to make key decisions to design a cost recovery mechanism to sustain the local water system and services over time. You will start with learning about different cost recovery models, types of investments, community considerations, and establishing community organizational structures. Then, you will practice gathering feedback from community members to guide your decisions for setting fair and realistic tariffs to ensure people will pay for water, collecting bills, and communicating the process and updates to the community over time. At the end, you will reach a final review where you can practice applying what you have learned to design a successful cost recovery mechanism to sustain a local community’s water system.

Objectives:

• Define the steps for planning and designing a cost recovery mechanism.
• Determine what investments are needed to sustain a water system.
• Differentiate between affordability and willingness to pay.
• Understand how to mobilize the community and prepare them to pay for water services.
• Identify different cost recovery charging mechanisms.
• Set up a tariff structure based on key considerations.
• Determine possible options for billing and collection.

Mercy Corps and DisasterReady designed this course for staff working in WASH programs, including MEAL and logistics teams, who have technical or non-technical roles/experience, and are seeking to strengthen their knowledge and skills in water trucking design, provision, and monitoring.