Over a five-year period from 2000 to 2005, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) experimented with service delivery in slums, first through three pilot projects under a donor-funded program, and then through a newly created Social Development Unit (SDU). By early 2005, the SDU had mobilized 46 poor communities, approximately 10 percent of the city’s slums, of which more than half had successfully connected to the BWSSB network and continue to be served with water, receive bills, and make payments. The Board’s work in slums achieved important objectives by:

• increasing the number of slum households connected to the metered network;
• decreasing residents’ dependency on ‘free’ water through public taps or illegal connections; and
  
• reducing non-revenue water.

The program has had significant impact despite the fact that it was launched without a set of specific objectives, operated in a rather ad hoc manner, and received variable support from the rest of the utility. It is, however, indigenous to the BWSSB, has provided an important model, and is slowly but surely being scaled up.

This field note summarizes the experience of the BWSSB. It examines the major external triggers - a successful pilot project, expansion of the water supply network and the end of external funding for public taps - that led to the utility embarking on a program to connect the poor and bring them onto the customer base. It also looks at the internal factors contributing to success, which included willingness to make internal policy changes, the establishment of a unit tasked with reaching out to the slums, and the unexpected impact of revenue targets on the incentives for frontline staff. It concludes that the BWSSB managed to significantly increase access for the poor within the context of a commitment to good management and cost recovery, and that there are valuable lessons for pro-poor utility reform in other cities.