Why integrity matters in water and sanitation
Access to water and sanitation is a fundamental human right, but the sector is highly exposed to corruption risks throughout the service chain, from policy-making and regulation to procurement and day-to-day operations. In Latin America, corruption-related losses in the sector are estimated at between 6% and 25%, and projects with higher corruption risk show unit costs between 1.1% and 16.4% higher than average. These risks translate into poor-quality infrastructure, unreliable services, and eroded public trust.
What is SEMI?
The Integrity Assessment and Monitoring System (SEMI) is a regulatory tool developed by the Consortium for Integrity in the Water and Sanitation Sector, made up of the Water Integrity Network (WIN), the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL), and cewas, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Rather than imposing a fixed checklist, SEMI offers a flexible set of up to 40 indicators built around the four pillars of integrity: transparency (10 indicators), accountability (9), citizen participation (9), and anti-corruption (12). Each regulator selects and adapts the indicators most relevant to its own context, capacities, and priorities, and validates that selection together with service providers.
Guiding principles
SEMI is built on four principles: universal applicability across providers of all sizes, from large urban utilities to small rural water boards; minimizing the reporting burden by integrating with existing benchmarking systems rather than duplicating them; a participatory, user-centered approach where regulators are not locked into a predefined list; and a focus on producing a quantifiable integrity index that allows performance to be tracked and compared over time.
A four-phase process
SEMI is implemented in four phases: Phase I, launch and contextualization, where the regulator formalizes its commitment and the sector's legal and reporting context is mapped; Phase II, participatory design of the indicator set through a workshop with regulatory experts; Phase III, validation of the indicators with service providers through their own self-assessment exercise; and Phase IV, implementation, where results are consolidated into an integrity index and mechanisms are put in place to ensure the system's long-term sustainability.
Real experiences in Latin America
The report documents in detail how Honduras and Bolivia adapted SEMI to their own regulatory frameworks. In Honduras, the regulator ERSAPS formally institutionalized the tool through an official resolution and is progressively rolling it out to service providers; the average integrity index rose from 65% in 2022 to 72% in 2024. In Bolivia, the Authority for Oversight and Social Control of Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation (AAPS) worked with 11 service providers across four size categories, defining 16 context-specific indicators (four per pillar) and integrating them into its existing regulatory information system.
Lessons and recommendations
The report closes with lessons drawn from both experiences and practical recommendations for other regulators: treat SEMI as an adaptable menu rather than a rigid checklist, co-create the process with service providers from the start to secure legitimacy, involve legal teams early to keep indicators within the regulator's mandate, integrate the tool with existing reporting systems to reduce transition costs, start small and scale gradually, and link measurement to training, technical support, and public recognition of good performance.
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