Some poor groups may prefer to reduce the costs of services by contributing labour, and becoming directly involved in the construction process. In a number of innovative projects such as the one at El Alto, big water operators are recognising the importance of community labour as a means to increase the number of service subscribers, and for promoting ownership of installed infrastructure. These communities pay a lower connection fee if they provide labour for the digging of trenches. In other schemes, such as that at Córdoba, communities themselves have initiated schemes so that they benefit, much earlier than intended, from the service upgrade under the concession arrangement. While this is still not always the case (some large international operators openly admit they do not wish to get involved with unskilled labour), the case of El Alto, described in Box 7.6, illustrates how successful such community construction efforts can be.