promote the private sector stalled: only in 2005 the first and so far only water concession in peru was awarded in the city of tumbes. in 2006, a new government launched a massive investment program called agua para todos (water for all). from municipal service provision to a national holding company in the beginning of the 1960s, the municipalities had the responsibility of providing water and sanitation services. however, this responsibility was transferred to the ministry of housing and construction in most urban areas towards the end of the decade. in rural areas, investments were realized through the ministry of public health. the systems, once built, were handed over to community-based organizations for operation and maintenance. in the 1970s, the large cities of lima, arequipa and trujillo created their own water and sanitation companies. cusco in 1981, the government of fernando belaúnde terry merged the three sanitation companies of lima, arequipa, and trujillo and the general directorate for water and sanitation of the ministry of housing and construction in a single national state holding company, the national service of water and sewage supply (senapa). senapa was composed of 15 constituent companies and 10 operational units. sedapal in lima was the largest one. 200 cities (20%) were left out of senapa and administered their own services. the government of alan garcía (1985–1990) passed a law that transferred the functions related to rural water and sanitation construction and technical assistance to regional governments. with the change in government in 1990, these changes did not materialize, as the regionalization stalled. decentralization and commercialization during the 1990s, the water and sanitation sector was decentralized again. in may 1990, the outgoing government of alan garcía decided to transfer all senapa constituent companies and operational units to the municipalities. senapa was to be converted into a company in charge of only giving technical assistance to the municipalities, a decision that was never implemented. the government of alberto fujimori (1990–2000) initiated another restructuring of the sector with the objectives of commercializing and privatizing the service providers. in 1991, the government enacted the private investment promotion law for water and sanitation. in 1992, the national water and sewage program (pronap) was created. senapa and sedapal were placed under the direct authority of the president. in 1994, a new law was passed that created the legal figure of the municipal utility (eps) as an entity that is legally and financially separate of the municipality. more than ten years later, in 2005, the water and sanitation program of the world bank called the commercialization of municipal water utilities in the interior of the country a "silent reform in the sector". the general law of the national superintendence of sanitation services (sunass) was passed in 1994. a tariff restructuring with the objective of achieving financial viability of the eps was carried out in parallel. despite the government's expectations, no single public-private partnership in water supply and sanitation was put in place during the fujimori government and all service providers remained public. only in october 2005 the first water and sanitation concession contract in peru was signed in the province of tumbes. the 30-year concession was awarded after open bidding to a peruvian-argentine consortium, latinaguas-concyssa. the interventions under the concession were to be financed with the support of a loan and grant from the german development bank kfw. in la libertad region the public company for water supply and sanitation is sedalib which is formed by shareholders of municipalities of the region. "agua para todos" (2006) in september 2006, the new president alan garcía announced an ambitious investment plan for the water and sanitation sector called agua para todos (that is, water for everyone), promising water access to all peruvians – mainly to the poorest – by the end of his mandate. however, as of 2020, there have been no further developments on this proposed plan. currently, water delivery projects by the peruvian government involve partnerships with ngos such as the non-profit also called "water for everyone". ecoswell non-profit work on water accessibility without government support is currently occurring, in northern peru, in the talara region. ecoswell identified a need for sustainable organizing and environmental and economic stability. their bottom-up approach to community mobilization focuses on "the needs of the base of the pyramid". ecoswell has chosen the town of lobitos for its coastal location, its growing population, and its flow of tourism, as well as the threat to this town from climate change. ecoswell has multiple projects focused on the long-term sustainability of this region's ecology, with a commitment to "no growth" or to a "steady-state economy". ecoswell's projects are in line with the peruvian government's commitment and recognized success in achieving the "sustainability sweet spot". one project uses solar-powered distillers to desalinate ocean water; ecoswell is currently seeking support from the community and more funding to expand this project. lobitos is located in a dry zone that does not have a lot of access to fresh water, so desalinization (drawing on the ocean nearby) is a smart alternative during drought periods. ecoswell peru is a non profit organization founded by four lifelong friends with the mission of developing the coastal town lobitos. upon meeting up in lobitos for a surfing trip, these four friends pondered upon a grave realization. this realization was that lobitos was severely underdeveloped; there was a lack of clean water; the sewage system was defective; and the dry forest ecosystem was degrading rapidly. in an effort to restore the ecosystem of their favorite vacation spot, these lifelong companions collaborated together and created the non profit organization ecoswell. ecoswell was founded in 2013 and is composed of city locals as well as volunteer interns from around the world. together the members of ecoswell work on different projects and tasks to resolve the main objective which is to essentially develop the degraded coastal town of lobitos. approaches in 2006-07 nine small towns (between 5,000 and 25,000 inhabitants) across peru introduced a new water and sanitation management model, under which the community is being more empowered, including through deciding themselves about a certain level of service quality, such as low-cost technologies, and corresponding tariffs. subsequently the municipality hires a specialized operator who is being regulated by a community supervision board under a public-private-social partnership. the specialized operator can be a private or a mixed company. the aim of the new approach was to break with the low-level equilibrium of poor service quality and poor cost recovery that prevails throughout small towns in peru, under which poor quality water services are provided directly by the municipality. the new approach was supported through the small town pilot project (stpp) of the ministry of housing, with technical support from the world bank's water and sanitation program (wsp) and financial support of us$6.6 million from the canadian international development agency for limited infrastructure investments and training for both the operator and members of the community supervision boards. after the municipal elections of 2007, 3 new mayors decided to abandon the new approach and to return to the old model of direct municipal management. in the 6 other cities specialized operators continue to operate. responsibility for water supply and sanitation policy casa de pizarro is the official residence of the president. the ministry of housing, construction, and sanitation is the sector governing entity through the vice ministry of construction and sanitation (vmcs) and the national sanitation board (dns). the ministry formulates, approves, executes and supervises the application of the national water and sanitation policies. the ministry was created on june 11, 2002, through the organic law #27779. various drafts of a general water law for water resources management have been in discussion for two decades. nevertheless, no law has been approved up to now. regulation the sector regulating entity is the national sanitation services supervisory (sunass), created by law in 1992. its functions are to regulate and supervise service providers, approve tariffs, establish norms, impose sanctions for violations of the law, and resolve user controversies and complaints. as part of its supervision activities sunass has established a benchmarking system to monitor the performance of service providers. sunass is funded through a 2% surcharge on water bills with an annual budget of approximately us$4 million. according to the law, it enjoys administrative and financial autonomy. its board consists of five members nominated as follows: 2 by the prime minister's office (including the board's chairman) 1 by the ministry of finance 1 by the ministry of housing, construction, water and sanitation 1 by the office of fair competition (indecopi) provision of services arequipa the peruvian constitution of 1993 bestows the responsibility of water and sanitation service provision to the city councils. the ley orgánica de municipalidades (law nº 27972) states that the function of the provincial municipalities is to directly or by concession administer and regulate the water service, sewage, and drainage. peru has 194 provincial city councils. the service providers in the country are: water and sewer company (sedapal) in lima; 53 municipal service providers (eps) in other cities (sedapal and the eps have 62% of the country's population within their jurisdiction); approximately 11,800 communal organizations – sanitation services administrative committees (jass) – that are responsible for 29% of the population mainly situated in rural areas; and, 490 small municipalities that contain 9% of the total population. when mayors change in peru this often leads to the removal of the general manager of the municipal service provider (eps) or of the head of the municipal department in charge of water supply in smaller municipalities that do not have an eps. in 1999 it was estimated that the eps changed general managers on the average every 17 months. this happens although the majority of the eps are made up of several provincial municipalities, which in theory should decrease the influence of city governments and reduce the political interference in the administration of companies. nearly all of the country's service providers remain weak in financial and institutional aspects, as well as in human resources, despite attempts to strengthen them. support to communal organizations a key function in the water and sanitation sector that is frequently neglected is the support to communal organizations that provide services, mainly in rural areas. this function can be assigned to municipalities, eps, or to national entities with departmental filiations. the who observed that in 2000 the municipal participation in assistance to rural services was insufficient to different extents, ranging from its total exclusion to the need for support in the preparation of the technical records and the complete integration in the planning, financing, and construction supervision processes. the regional governments have technical and financial supporting functions (also see peru regulation). the 24 separate regional boards of housing, construction, and sanitation – one in each department – support them in this role. many interventions in rural areas during the 1990s were made without verifying the community demand and without their contributions to the execution of the projects. this resulted in overly designed systems that the communities did not maintain thus leading to loss of public funds. since 2002, the pronasar project supports the administrative assemblies of sanitation services (jass) directly and through ngos as well as municipalities. other functions the ministry of health (minsa) is also participating in the sector through the general director's office of environmental health (digesa) and the executive director's office on basic sanitation (desab), entities which exert functions in the aspects pertaining to sanitary and water quality for human consumption and the protection of a healthy environment. other institutions which act and participate in the sector are the ministry of economy and finances (mef) that specifically interferes in the aspects of economic sectoral and normative planning related to finances; several ngos and the private sector, among others. the national cooperation fund for social development (foncodes), created in 1991, channels resources to investing in marginalized rural and urban areas in various sectors including potable water and sanitation. within the framework of the state decentralization process, since october 2003, foncodes transfers resources to the district city councils verified for social infrastructure projects, offering technical assistance and contributes to the capacity building for the responsible handling of social investments. the foncodes depends on the ministry of women and social development (mimdes). since the beginning of pronasar, foncodes has retired from