Life-cycle costs represent the aggregate costs of ensuring delivery of sustainable WASH services through a system’s cycle of wear, repair and renewal. That message was delivered at the WASH Conference 2011: "Towards sustainability in water, sanitation and hygiene" in Brisbane, Australia, 16 – 20 May 2011.

A one-day training session, led by WASHCost Project Director Catarina Fonseca and WASHCost India Country Coordinator Dr. Mekala Snehalatha, provided an introduction to the life-cycle costs approach, and its practical application to WASH programmes based on experiences in Burkina Faso, Ghana, India and Mozambique. The trainers covered 10 steps to collecting life-cycle costs data and showed how it has been done by WASHCost in India, introducing a number of methods and tools. Dr. Snehalatha emphasised that the challenges arise in their practical application.

One senior level government representative stated after the meeting: “It dawned on me that there is something missing in the government WASH programmes in the province” and indicated an interest in learning more about the application of life-cycle costing. Another senior manager of an international NGO intends to apply the ideas and methods at project level.

Several participants emphasised that one day is too short to really grasp the ideas. One participant suggested inviting country or provincial representatives to present best practices and lessons learned in achieving lasting results in WASH projects. It is anticipated that future training sessions will be up to a week long to get deeper into the practical application of a life-cycle costs approach.

Above expectations

Participation exceeded expectations and the capacity of the room. Catarina Fonseca: “Attendance went beyond planned and exercises and examples worked well for a full day of very enthusiastic and interested audience. The feedback on the evaluation was also very good.”

Overall, the evaluation revealed that participants found it an inspiring session and appreciated both the materials and ideas presented and the opportunities to interact. Graphs, maps and presentation were appreciated: “The pie chart revealing hidden costs was useful, I've never had to do this before”, said a private sector professional who provides technical support to national WASH projects.

Find the materials online

The materials from the session are available online on the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre website: www.irc.nl/brisbane2011. 

For a brief introduction to core concepts see the key note presentation by Catarina Fonseca entitled Shifting to life-cycle costing. The presentation and audio soundtrack can be downloaded at http://www.watercentre.org/wash2011, (click on presentations and then on financial sustainability).

Catarina Fonseca and Dick de Jong

Tags: africa, capacity development, rural wash, south asia, sustainable service delivery