Going Public: Southern Solutions to the Global Water Crisis

This World Development Movement report features sections by managers of, or advisors to, successful public water utilities in the global South. The first section discusses the advantages of Public–Public Partnerships (PUPs) and also demonstrates that public water providers are delivering clean water to poor communities in several countries while operating in a way that is accountable and transparent to the people they serve. In the last two decades, the policy focus has been on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) and most donors have been more supportive of these because they are perceived to be more efficient than PUPs. This report argues that there is no evidence to prove that privately run utilities are any better at resolving the constraints faced by public utilities.

This volume provides useful information on various issues that affect public utilities in their quest to provide water and sanitation services. There is a dearth of literature on PUPs in water and sanitation and this is therefore an important addition to the knowledge on the subject. Despite supporting PUPs, the report acknowledges that rigid civil service regulations, bureaucracy, poor cost recovery and lack of incentives to ensure efficiency often hamper service provision by public utilities. On the other hand, private sector efforts disregard equity concerns, are likely to charge unaffordable tariffs to the poor and are unable to respond to needs that provide community benefits but lack private benefits. Considering that both approaches to service delivery have limitations, it would have been helpful for the report to include an analysis of some PPPs, thus giving the reader a much more balanced analysis.

Section II describes how the struggling state-owned National Water and Sewerage Corporation in Uganda managed an internal restructuring that resulted in a significant improvement in performance between 1998 and 2006. This section also discusses the key managerial approaches and success factors, which include a hard-working and committed board of directors and a dynamic utility management and staff team that is also capable of monitoring both technical and customer relations. Attention is drawn to the importance of cost recovery and the challenges that may be faced in the process. This section also outlines the role of the private sector in PUPs and further acknowledges the important role that donors could still have in restructuring state-owned enterprises as long as the collaboration is carried out in a meaningful manner that encourages organizations to take their own initiatives. Section III discusses a change in the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board in India, which resulted in a shift to community participation and decentralization that focused efforts on extending services to the unserviced areas and on conserving water sources. After trying out the conventional strategies of increasing investment, improving technology, and community-centred water schemes, the Board concluded that these measures were not effective. It therefore decided to adopt a democratization programme that re-examined the way the organization related to the community and other stakeholders. The improved relations between the water utility and the community translated into direct involvement by the community in the supply of more sustainable water services.

Section IV presents successful experiences in municipal public water and sanitation services in Brazil. It outlines how society has shown its strength by carrying out various successful water and sanitation projects throughout the country. These experiences have shown the ability of public authorities to meet challenges in a creative and democratic way. In Unai, for example, the public water authorities have managed to deliver 100 per cent coverage for water and sewerage, and the utility is able to re-invest up to 20 per cent of its revenue. Section V describes how the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority in Ca