Publication: Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities : A Review of Experiences in Developing Countries
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2010-04
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2012-08-13
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Since 1990, many national and local governments in developing countries have contracted with private companies to operate or manage their water utilities under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contracts. The assumption was that the private sector will improve utilities by bringing in new capital, raising the level of staff expertise, and making operations more cost-effective and efficient. More than 260 PPP contracts have been signed to provide water services in more than forty developing countries. The recourse to private operators has been accompanied, however, by a good deal of controversy. Several high profile contracts, such as in Buenos Aires, were cancelled in recent years following conflicts between the public and private partners. This has raised doubts about the suitability of PPPs to help improve water services in developing countries. Yet, there has been only little objective data available in the literature about the performance of PPPs, and the resulting debate has been based more on ideology than fact. This study attempts to redress the shortage of information by examining, through objective indicators, the actual performance of PPPs in developing countries over the last fifteen years. It collected data from as many as 65 PPP projects, representing a served population of about one hundred million people half of the urban population served at one point in time since 1990 by private water operators, and 80 percent of the population served by a private operator for more than 3 years and under a contract signed before 2003.
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“World Bank. 2010. Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities : A Review of Experiences in Developing Countries. Water P-Notes; No. 41. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11706 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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It will also be useful to explicitly state the subsidy that the city will bear for connecting poor consumers to the network. Explicit arrangements in the contract will allay apprehensions of urban poor as well as encourage the operator to connect the poor.Publication Running Water in India's Cities : A Review of Five Recent Public Private Partnership Initiatives(Washington, DC, 2014-01)India is home to more than 370 million people in urban areas. No city in the country meets the government's targets for continuous pressurized safe water with full coverage and full cost recovery. Groundwater sources are also being depleted putting severe constraints on economic development. To make up for unreliable services, households have invested significantly in alternate arrangements over the past three decades. Reliable estimates of asset condition and performance in Indian cities are difficult to establish, given the poor culture of documentation, data collection, and reporting. Data drawn from several benchmarking initiatives indicate the following: service delivery parameters are well below established norms, with coverage through piped water supply ranging between 55 percent and 89 percent, and while per capita availability is fairly high, at 90-120 liters per day, no city offers continuous water supply. Daily supply averages four hours, with many cities alternating supply every other day. These challenges occur in a context of limited data or data management capability and largely unknown conditions of existing assets, which present difficulties in assessing the costs and timelines involved in improving service levels and operational efficiencies. Moreover, the investments required are likely to be significant, particularly since most cities have seen little systematic investment in asset management and expansion over the years. Simultaneously, it is recognized that investments alone will not be effective in the context of complex and fragmented institutions with little accountability; lack of capacity to run utilities efficiently and meet performance standards; weak commercial orientation; interference in utility operations by external entities; and the absence of a regulatory framework focused on customer service and financial sustainability
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