Subsidies for WASH in development, mitigation, relief, and recovery: a critical but neglected aspect of practice

Richard Luff

doi:10.3362/1756-3488.2013.030

Subsidies for WASH in development, mitigation, relief, and recovery: a critical but neglected aspect of practice

This paper seeks to put the spotlight on the practice of subsidy or payments given to communities and the differences that exist between payments in the so-called development–relief contiguum. There are good reasons for these differences, but there is little consistency in the application of subsidy within each part of this contiguum and no clear policy on how one changes payments as one moves from one part of the contiguum to another. This paper does not take a position on what level of subsidy is necessary or useful in each phase, but asks why there has been such a lack of attention to this and, as a consequence, inconsistency of practice.

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