Drinking water supply and sanitation in Benin has been subject to considerable progress since the 1990s, in particular in rural areas, where coverage is higher than in many other African countries,[7] and almost all development partners follow a national demand-responsive strategy, which has been adopted in 1992.

A coherent institutional framework has been developed for rural areas and projects have been implemented with strong help by external donors.

[11][12][13] For the sake of comparison, less than US$ 10m per year have been invested in water supply and sanitation in rural areas where 55% of the population of Benin lives.

The situation depends on the accessibility to ground water, the geographic orientation of donor investment programs and the effective demand of the inhabitants of a community or region.

The annual water sector review for the financial year 2009 indicated 55,1% access for rural and 57% for urban areas.

According to a 2001 national health survey, in the cities of Cotonou, Parakou and Porto-Novo, only two out of 1,000 households dispose their wastewater in a correct way, while most of them discharge it directly into the nature or drains.

[24] According to a 2004 article, Cotonou is the only town in Benin which has a functioning wastewater treatment plant, where sludge from septic tanks and latrines is treated.

[24] Another article reports that the treatment plant, operated by the private Industrial Society of Urban Equipment and Sanitation (SIBEAU) treats about 240–300 m³ per day.

[24] It is estimated that the available water resources in Benin are sufficient to meet the current and future demand, even if agricultural and industrial consumption are included.

The initiative will lessen floods near buildings, benefiting 187,000 people in and around Cotonou while also reducing plastic and other pollutants in the Gulf of Guinea.

Because heavy rains have continued to fall in the area, large volumes of plastics and other debris are being released into Lake Nokoué and the Gulf of Guinea via open drains, making water resources scarce.

[32] Souterrains dated from 17th–19th century were built by the Kingdom of Dahomey for different functions including water storage[33] or to serve as seasonal cisterns.

[20] Since these efforts and investments in the sector had proved to be little sustainable, a new demand-responsive strategy for rural water supply and sanitation was prepared with the help of the World Bank and adopted in 1992.

Like the former one, the strategy is based on a demand-responsive approach and has five principles: In May 2004, the call for a Water Initiative for semi-urban areas which are not covered by SONEB emerged.

The initiative, which has not yet been implemented in 2006 aims to reach the MDGs in these areas through the construction of rural water supply schemes in about 500 towns by 2015.

[6] Benin is currently in the process of implementing a decentralization policy, under which water supply and sanitation becomes responsibility of the 77 municipalities, which count between 25,000 and 600,000 inhabitants.

Eighty percent of the urban water supply demand is concentrated in Cotonou, Porto Novo, Parakou and Abomey/Bohicon.

[53] Although there is no agreement on appropriate levels of NRW among professionals, Tynan and Kingdom propose a best practice target of 23% in developing countries.

There is no distinction between the different types of consumers (residential, commercial, industrial), but two block tariffs according to the amount of water consumption.

According to the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), the sale of water can be very profitable and cover operation and maintenance costs.

[22] Since 2002, the financial resources allocated to the Ministry of Energy and Water follow a three-year program budget, focusing on a unification of all funding (operational and investment costs) and a better replicability of the expenditures and its impacts.

[13] The Ministry of Economic and Financial Development concludes that the MDGs will not be achieved if the expenditures for the sector continue in the same amounts as in the years 2002 to 2005.

[13][64] The implementation of the 2006-2015 strategy to reach the MDGs in urban areas is expected to be financed by the national state, municipalities, development partners, financial institutions and SONEB.

For small and medium water systems, financing will be provided by the municipalities, by the central state through public budgets, and by development partners.

Even in decentralized sectors the water authorities may find it hard to provide services to remote rural communities.

[65] The 1992 demand-responsive strategy for rural water supply and sanitation (see above) has been implemented since 1993 with the strong help of external development partners in several departments.

[66] In addition, the German development cooperation supports urban water supply through SONEB and its regional branches.

The first (2004–2005) and the second (2005–2006) PRSCs, which together provided US$50 million were both designed to help the implementation of the 2002 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and included support for improving water supply.

The program's objective is to increase access to infrastructure and basic services in the Beninese cities of Cotonou, Porto-Novo, Parakou, Abomey-Calavi, Kandi and Lokossa.

The WSP works in a close partnership with the World Bank's Water and Urban Unit - West Africa and national development agencies.