ESAWAS under the auspices of ADERASA – La Asociación de Entes Reguladores de Agua y Saneamiento de las Américas, the Association of Drinking Water and Sanitation Regulatory Entities of Latin America and Caribbean conducted a regulatory exchange visit for its members to SUNASS-Superintendencia Nacional de Servicios de Saneamiento, the Regulator of Potable Water and Sanitation in Peru, from 11th to 14th November 2024.
The visit aimed at exchanging knowledge and experiences in urban and rural regulatory practices and tools to improve resilience in the provision of water and sanitation services and the role of regulation in accelerating progress towards SDG6. This was in line with ESAWAS objective to enhance the effectiveness of WSS regulation through capacity of its members to deliver quality and effective regulation.
The exchanges kicked off by the presentation of Mr Mauro Gutiérrez Martinez, the Executive President of SUNASS and the President of ADERASA. He provided an overview of SUNASS in terms of its vision, legal framework and organizational structure. The key highlight was the adoption of an integrated regulatory model incorporating social optimization by considering not only the current user but also future users and unconnected users in balancing the regulatory role, as well as the strong use of technology to monitor, report and improve the quality of service. The functions of SUNASS under its different directorates were also discussed led by Mr Manuel Muñoz Quiroz, the General Manager of SUNASS.
Mr Mauro Gutiérrez Martinez, in his role as ADERASA President highlighted the objectives, membership and projects of ADERASA emphasizing on the potential areas of cooperation between ESAWAS and ADERASA including tariff regulation and financing, strengthening water quality standards, data and transparency systems as well as technical skills and capacity development to enhance water governance and regulation. The representatives of ADERASA working groups presented the activities of the Association touching on aspects of tariff structure and subsidies, benchmarking of utilities, monitoring of water quality monitoring and continuity of service among others.
The ESAWAS team visited CAMI YAKU, the Research Centre for Analysis and Monitoring of Potable Water Information. The centre is fitted with an Information Management System that is used for water pressure monitoring and continuity of service using dataloggers, incident reports of service providers nationwide and data collection on different indicators.
The experience sharing also featured presentations from other institutions that work closely with SUNASS. These include:
The Ministry of Environment (MINAM) – discussed the national policy of environment highlighting its role in the management of water resources under its General Directorate of Environmental Quality. The Environmental Assessment and Oversight Agency (Oefa) under MINAM presented different national systems used for environmental management, environmental evaluation and inspections with linkage with potable water supply and sanitation services.
OTASS – the Technical Institution for the Administration of Sanitation service under the Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, presented its strategy for strengthening the capacity of water and sanitation service providers which covers technical, operational, financial and managerial support. Under its Relaunch-Temporary Support Regime (RAT) model, service providers classified by the regulator as weak operators are supported by OTASS for a maximum of 15 years to strengthen the management and administration of the service provider to guarantee their sustainability. During the RAT period, OTASS assumes the functions and powers of the board of directors and general management of the company. OTASS also lead the integration process consisting of unifying service providers to ensure economies of scale and improvement in access to service.
Participants visited some of the service providers and facilities to get practical experience on water supply and sanitation services in Peru:
SEDAPAL – the Drinking Water and Wastewater Service Provider of Lima. At SEDAPAL, participants visited the drinking water treatment plant which serves about 12 million people in Lima. Participants also learned about the education program run by SEDAPAL in schools on rational utilization of water.
SEDACUSCO – The service provider in Cusco supplying drinking water from wells to the population in Cusco. The company also runs a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant which not only treats the wastewater but also produces electricity through anaerobic digestion. The plant utilizes the electricity produced onsite, a practical example of circular economy in WSS.
Rural water supply system in the community of Urcos run by the municipality – participants appreciated the water quality monitoring system by the regulator which provides real-time data on water quality but also informs on the continuity of the supply.
SUNASS Cusco Regional Office – provided an overview of its operations as a regional office. The discussions focused more on the tariff structure considering that the office deals with both urban and rural water supply and sanitation services.
From this learning visit, participants appreciated the following key aspects that can be adopted by African WSS regulators:
- Decentralization of regulator’s operations – the local presence of the regulator including in the rural area
- Advanced technology for service monitoring – tools and system in place for real time data collection and analysis for the timely informed decision making
- Separate and strong entity for capacity building and assistance to weak service providers to improve their performance
- Mechanisms for water quality monitoring – the regulator does not rely only on data submitted by the service providers
Participants also identified areas that need improvement to enhance effective WSS regulation in Peru:
- The regulatory approach is more facilitative – regulatory decisions are more of recommendations hence not enforceable
- Weakened tariff approval mandate– the regulator provides only guidance with no enforcement power which can be detrimental to sustainability concerns for regulated providers and affordability for consumers
- Many service providers in rural area – need for clustering for effective service provision
The regulatory exchange visit led by ESAWAS was attended by 9 participants from Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. ESAWAS will continue to collaborate with like-minded organisations and facilitate cross learning among regulators to strengthen WSS regulation across Africa and globally. ADERASA has since committed to lead a similar delegation to Africa in 2025 as a continuation of the exchange initiated.
