almost of the urban population has access to drinking water and as of about of it was connected to a sewerage network with treatment figure this is the result of a modern and effective institutional and policy framework that was made possible by a proactive process of privatisation of water utilities initiated in the late s the framework combines i highquality regulation ii water operators in most cases private sector providers being allowed to recover the full cost of service provision thereby enabling investment in assuring coverage and quality of service and iii an innovative system of subsidies targeted to poor consumers to ensure affordability