This book examines the challenge of reform of the urban water supply sector in developing countries, based on case studies of state-owned water companies in Ghana, India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The growing public private partnership for urban water supply is analyzed, focussing on the concession contract model. The implications for meeting the water needs of the urban poor, for the regulatory role of the state and for state capacity building are also discussed.

Autorentext

ANDREW NICKSON is Reader in Public Management and Latin American Development, School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham, where he directs the Masters in Governance and Development Management programme of the International Development Department (IDD). He has extensive worldwide experience of teaching, research and consultancy on public administration reform, decentralisation, and regulation of privatised public utilities.

RICHARD FRANCEYS is Senior Lecturer in Water and Sanitation Management at Cranfield University and a member of 'WaterVoice Central', the Central Customer Services Committee of OFWAT, the UK water regulator. He has previously spent several years working with an NGO in Sudan.

Zusammenfassung
Around the world, conventional public providers of water are failing to serve the urban areas with an effective and safe supply. Providing water for one or two hours, sometimes every other day, does not ensure public health, let alone deliver the convenience that users desire and are often willing to pay for. Delivering an inadequate, subsidized service to the richer areas and allowing, by default, the informal private sector to charge the poorest between ten and twenty times as much by volume is not a satisfactory policy. What should be the role of government in ensuring the safe provision of this basic need to the urban areas of developing countries, particularly to the poorest? Can the new approach of involving multi-national private operators deliver the necessary service at a reasonable and affordable cost? Based on their multi-country research, the authors consider whether governments can undertake their new role of economic regulation in the sector, while acting as a partner to the private sector in the provision of water supply, and consider how governments can develop the necessary capacity to ensure service to all.

Inhalt

Reform of the Urban Water Sector and the Role of Government The Structure and Performance of Urban Water Utilities Explanations of Performance and Reform Responses Choosing Public Private Partnerships The Challenge of the Concession Model Addressing the Water Needs of the Urban Poor Regulating and Enabling the Direct Providers Taking Account of Capacity Reforming Urban Water Sector Reform