[[Image:vendor icon.png|right|80px]][[Image:water vendor.jpg|thumb|right|300px200px|Water vendors (Mairuwa) at work. Photo: Biodun Ogunleye.]][[Image:nigeriawater.jpg|thumb|right|300px200px|A water vendor in Makurdi, Nigeria fills his cans with water from the polluted Benue River. Photo: Ameto Akpe. Nigeria, 2011.]]__NOTOC__<small-title />
The “re-discovery” of water vending was spurred by studies of willingness to pay for water. Indeed, the premium on vended water shows a willingness to pay for water that flies in the face of the claim that people believe water is a free good, which should not be bought and sold. This has been one argument for the increase of water tariffs and the capitalization of private initiatives in the water sector. Water vendors have been praised for their entrepreneurship, as well as their ability to reach the poor and areas that are difficult to develop with conventional infrastructure. At the same time, they are still often scorned for exploiting people’s absolute and basic need for water.
Water vendors may operate water kiosks, where they sell water from a shallow well, a borehole, a commercial water connection, or a household connection to the piped network. Consumers may carry the water to their homes themselves. Distributing vendors may also collect water from kiosks. They typically carry water in containers loaded on bicycles, hand- pushed carts, or even animal-drawn or motorized carts, and bring it to households and small businesses. On a larger scale, and often serving higher-income customers, there are water tanker trucks that carry greater quantities to premises with larger storage capacities.
===Suitable conditions===
Good to site in areas where water trucking and vending already exists.
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! width="50%" style="background:#efefef;" | Advantages
! style="background:#ffdeadf0f8ff;" | Disadvantages
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| valign="top" | - Allows water to be delivered to water-stressed areas where water supply cannot meet demand.<br>
===Construction, operations and maintenance===
Support the capacity of the government or private sector to be able to provide (for payment) a water trucking scheme during the driest parts of the year. It has been argued that where the market is functioning well, interventions that address market-related issues during drought are more effective at protecting livelihoods than those that address food supply problems. Therefore, supporting the private sector to be able to provide a water service could be more effective than concentrating too much on establishing new water technologies.
===Costs===
[[Image:water vendor costs.jpg|thumb|none|600px|Water prices in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Chart: IIED.]]
===Field experiences===
'''A pushcart water vendor in Manila (Philippines)'''<br>
United by their collective need for reliable and affordable water and the burden faced from high water prices incurred by private vendors, women in low-income urban neighbourhoods throughout Honduras have developed and managed their own licensed water-vending stations. The project benefits include lower and fixed water prices and the provision of part-time employment for poor single women with children.
===Manuals, videos, and links===
* [http://odili.net/news/source/2012/apr/4/331.html Lagos: Water everywhere but none to drink.] Vanguard (online edition).
* [http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/nigeria-water-sanitation-accountability-corruption-abandoned Many Leaks Yearning for Plugs in Nigeria's Water Sector.] Pulitzer Center on crisis reporting. 2011.
===Acknowledgements===* KJELLÉN, MARIANNE AND MCGRANAHAN, GORDON. [http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CHkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpubspubs.iied.org%2Fpdfs%2F10529IIED/pdfs/10529IIED.pdf&ei=VTfAT_HYM4ioiQKg6KCKCA&usg=AFQjCNFlpUPZZxjoBYudKmTZCWd87SLGMw&sig2=4KUU9fQulNVxHenOcMNmpA INFORMAL WATER VENDORS AND THE URBAN POOR.] International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2006.
* CARE Nederland, ''Desk Study Resilient WASH systems in drought prone areas.'' October 2010.
