In the face of rapid urbanization, public sector utilities in developing countries are experiencing growing demands for water services. Increasingly, the gap left in public service provision is being filled by small-scale domestic private providers.The document summarizes results from case studies of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It notes that although small-scale private providers increase water supply coverage and reduce time spent on fetching water, in the absence of a coherent policy framework with effective tariff enforcement and water quality monitoring, services delivery is often costly and of varying quality.