To integrate or not to integrate? : water and waste as unified basic services

Should planning, implementation and management of essential basic water and waste services, i.e., water supply, sanitation, solid waste and stormwater management, be integrated? At the All Systems Connect Symposium 2023 in The Hague, six eminent speakers from academia, government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector debated this issue. This article presents the four key issues that were raised when considering integration of water and waste services in low-resource settings: (1) Management and capacity; (2) Implementation complexity; (3) Operational synergies; and (4) Prior experiences. Further research involving practitioners, and government representatives could provide insights into what the optimal level of integration is for different contexts.