Publication: Consumer Cooperatives for Delivery of Urban Water and Sanitation Services
Date
2008-06
ISSN
Published
2008-06
Author(s)
Ruiz-Mier, Fernando
Ginneken, Meike van
Abstract
To find the optimal delivery model for
urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, one must
look beyond ownership structures to the practices and
designs that support good performance. Consumer cooperatives
are often attractive institutional models. This note focuses
on a Bolivian cooperative that is one of the most successful
water cooperatives in Latin America. Successful cooperatives
focus on building internal technical and managerial
capacity. Most are leaders in technical and organizational
innovation. They monitor operations, standardize processes
where possible, engage in business planning, and clearly
define responsibilities. Management uses benchmarking to
assess performance gaps. Outsourcing is normally low,
because the incentive of secure employment is stronger than
the potential savings to be had from outsourcing. However,
because cooperatives are not bound by public procurement
procedures, contracting can be done quickly when needed.
Citation
“Ruiz-Mier, Fernando; Ginneken, Meike van. 2008. Consumer Cooperatives for Delivery of Urban Water and Sanitation Services. Water P-Notes; No. 2. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11751 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”