In many African cities, the promise of clean water and safe sanitation remains a distant reality for millions living in informal settlements. Yet a quiet revolution is underway—one that doesn’t involve digging wells or laying pipes, but instead focuses on the rules, institutions, and systems that determine who gets water, when, and at what cost.
In its 2025 – 2030 Strategic Plan, WSUP has launched a sweeping new effort to reshape how African countries regulate water and sanitation. The initiative, known as Rolling Out Regulation in Africa (RORA), represents one of WSUP’s most ambitious undertakings yet—targeting the very foundations of water governance in the continent.
Over the next five years, WSUP will work with eight African countries to implement the six-step Roadmap for Advancing Sanitation Regulation, developed in collaboration with the Eastern and Southern Africa Water and Sanitation Regulators Association (ESAWAS), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF. The roadmap, while designed for sanitation, also offers a flexible framework that can be adapted to water regulation.
The goal is simple in theory but challenging in practice: improve water and sanitation services for the poor by improving how those services are governed. That means developing regulatory institutions where they do not yet exist, clarifying the mandates of existing ones, and helping governments set enforceable standards that protect low-income consumers from neglect, inefficiency, and unaffordable costs.
For WSUP, regulation is not a bureaucratic afterthought—it is a linchpin. “Our experience has shown that regulation is a pivotal part of the systems-strengthening activity required to drive universal access,” the organisation stated in a strategic release outlining its Theory of Change and new direction. Regulation, they argue, can ensure service delivery is not just expanded, but made more equitable, transparent, and sustainable.
The RORA initiative aims to unlock a cascade of long-term outcomes. These include more inclusive, pro-poor service delivery across the eight target countries, increased accountability from utilities and service providers, and strengthened regional leadership through ESAWAS. The association, which has grown in profile and technical influence over the past decade, will see its capacity bolstered to support national regulators with training, technical assistance, and peer learning.
Critically, the initiative will not impose a one-size-fits-all solution. WSUP is adopting a demand-led approach, working only with governments that have expressed a genuine interest in improving regulation. This reflects a shift in development thinking—away from donor-driven programming and toward locally anchored reforms that respond to country-specific contexts.
Knowledge, too, will be a key output. RORA will generate learning products and training modules designed to help countries that follow. These will be channelled through ESAWAS’s regional training center, offering a lasting institutional platform for skills development.
At a time when Africa faces rising urbanisation, intensifying climate shocks, and growing inequality, regulation may seem an unlikely hero. Yet it could be exactly what is needed to ensure the gains of infrastructure investments are shared widely—and maintained over time.
The path to safe, equitable water and sanitation for all is not paved with infrastructure alone. It requires institutions, policies, and a commitment to public good. Through RORA, WSUP is laying that foundation—and inviting those who believe in systemic, lasting change to stand with them.
