...would set a target of enabling first-time access to improved water supply and sanitation, on a sustainable basis, for 100 million people in high-priority countries over six years. CBO assumes that each year over the 2011-2016 period the Congress would appropriate the amounts necessary for USAID to initiate WSSH projects that would enable such improved access to one-sixth of the target population (about 17 million people).
Based on information from the State Department and USAID as well as the World Health Organization and other international and nongovernmental organizations, we estimate that on average it would cost $150 per person in 2011 to provide such access to improved water supply and sanitation. We therefore estimate that meeting the target specified in the bill would require the amount appropriated for WSSH activities to grow five-fold to $2.5 billion in 2011. We expect those amounts would increase with inflation in subsequent years. On that basis, CBO estimates that meeting those targets would cost about $8 billion over the 2011-2015 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts.