text: USAID has supported efforts to introduce scheduled desludging services in some countries in Southeast Asia. The first of these was in Dumaguete in the Philippines. The program was run jointly by the city government and the Dumaguete City Water District, with the former operating the treatment plant and the Water District conducting the desludging. The cost of the scheme was covered by adding a tariff of 2 pesos (about 5 US cents) to the water bill for each cubic meter of water consumed (about one US dollar per family per month). This approach was possible because around 95% of residents had a connection to the Water District reticulation system. Trucks were to move from neighborhood to neighborhood on a scheduled cycle, emptying pits on a regular 3–4 year cycle. This approach requires a database of all pits and septic tanks requiring desludging. However, Dumaguete has by 2018 reverted to an on-call system, the cost of which is still covered by the surcharge on the water tariff. It seems that users prefer this small regular payment to having to make large payments when tanks require desludging.