Title: Provision of Urban Environmental Infrastructure Services Issues and Strategies
1Provision of Urban Environmental Infrastructure
Services(Issues and Strategies)
- Vilas Nitivattananon, Ph.D.
- Urban Environmental Management
- Asian Institute of Technology
2Main Topics
- Introduction
- Issues
- Institutional aspects
- Alternative strategies
3Introduction - Infrastructure
- Public infrastructure is defined as those
services derived from the set of public works
traditionally supported by the public sector to
enhance private sector production and to allow
for household consumption - This includes services such as roads, mass
transportation, water systems, sewer systems,
solid waste management, drainage and flood
protection, electric installations, and
telecommunications
4Introduction - Sustainable Systems
- Goals
- Improve quality of life and alleviate
consequences of poverty - Promote economic productivity and growth
- Protection of environment
- Reinforce the effectiveness of municipal
governance - Appropriate decisions
- What infrastructure is demanded and how will it
be produced? - How will the investments and life-cycle costs be
financed? - What institutions will be used to deliver
services?
5Introduction Management Functions
- Goal and policy formulation (conceptual planning)
- Long-term planning (pre-planning)
- Investment planning and programming (detailed
planning/design) - Implementation of the plans (investment/constructi
on) - Operation and maintenance
- Monitoring and evaluation
6Issues - Overview
- Status of achievements
- Inadequate infrastructure capacity in expanding
urban areas results in serious constraints on
(environmentally sustainable) economic growth and
on poverty reduction - Challenges
- Inefficiency of operation
- Inadequate maintenance
- Financial inefficiency and fiscal drain
- Unresponsiveness to user demand
- Neglect of the poor
- Neglect of environment
7Issues - Water Supply
- Cities throughout Asia report shortages of
sources for raw water, and infrastructure for
provision of household, industrial, and
commercial water supply. - Meeting the problem of water for human use will
require application of macroplanning policies to
improve the allocation of water among competing
interests, and better microcontrols on, and
technology for, water use within households,
industries and commerce. - Focused technological alternatives, analysis of
costs and benefits on a broad scale, and
consensus building through various forms of
public and stakeholder participatory techniques
are required to arrive at politically successful
solutions.
8Issues - Sanitation
- In Asia, less than 60 of urban population had
access to adequate sanitation and about 1/3 was
connected to sewer systems. - Where sewerage collection existed, about 90 of
the wastewater was discharged w/o treatment - Conveyance systems are often inadequately
designed and poorly maintenance clogging from
solid waste causing flooding with bad water
quality - Some cities suffer from persistent drainage
problem related to monsoon flooding drainage
and flooding may be of greater concern than
sanitation especially among upper class of
population
9Issues - Solid Waste
- The major urban centers in developing countries
of Asia generate over 1 million tons of SW
annually, less than half is transported to
disposal - Inadequate SWM gives rise to many environmental
problems from disposal to open water, leaching
into groundwater, production of air pollution,
and from spread of insects and disease vectors - Pilot efforts at waste minimization and refuse
recovery are underway in a number of locations
throughout Asia composting, recycling, and
other community base techniques.
10Issues Transport and Air Pollution
- A key challenge in transport planning is
identifying measures that are technically sound
and acceptable to politicians and the public - Transport or mobile sources contribute the
majority of most pollutants in urban areas,
particularly when viewed in terms of human
exposure - Environmental health risks due to inadequate
waste management infrastructure are numerous in
urban area
11Issues Institutional
- Deficiencies
- Poor coordination between government agencies and
with private sector - Poor internal organization and management
structure - Deficient monitoring of sectoral performance
- Low morale among local government staff
- Funding to meet capital and operational needs is
often deficient with insufficient cost recovery
mechanisms
12Institutional Aspects Government
Responsibilities
- Which level of government should be responsible
for service delivery? - A clear delineation of responsibilities across
levels of government is essential for effective
service delivery - Although central government is responsible for
infrastructure investment in most countries, the
best strategy is to allocate some
responsibilities to each of local government - A number of factors influence the degree to which
local vs.. central governments should play a role
in service delivery
13Institutional Aspects - Decentralization
- Devolution of authority to local governments
- Transfer of authority and responsibilities for
service delivery from central to local
governments - Deconcentration of central government ministry
staff - Movement of ministry offices to regional or local
levels - Regional or local officials are able to make many
basic service delivery decisions - Others
- Privatization, public sector companies, public
authorities
14Institutional Aspects Decentralization
- Requirements for effective devolution
- Existing government structure
- Structure of other institutions and necessary
labor skills - Geographic scope of benefits
- Sufficient authority (legal ability and
institutional capacity) to raise revenues and
retain them at the local level for financing
service delivery - Public sector companies and service delivery
authorities - Less accountable because their linkage to public
officials and consumers may be tenuous - Community associations
- Responsive to users
15Institutional Aspects - Financing
- Adequate financing is necessary for sustainable
infrastructure systems - The role of finance is more than to ensure
sufficient funds are in place, because financing
schemes can affect incentives and other goals
(such as equity) - Willingness to pay an expression of the demand
for service, and it is a strong-requisite for
cost recovery because it is a measure of user
satisfaction of a service and of the desire of
users to contribute to its functioning - Community factors (participation, perceived
benefits, income, etc.) - Service factors (alternative sources, costs,
efficiency, etc.)
16Institutional Aspects - Financing
- Financing investments
- Government funding
- Donor financing
- Private equity financing
- Financing OM
- User fees appear to be best source of OM
financing - General fund contributions from the government
- Intergovernmental transfers from the central to
local governments
17Institutional Aspects - Financing
- Factors in planning
- Demand-driven
- What costs should be covered
- Willingness to pay analysis
- Institutional/legal framework
- Accompanying measures (e.g., education and
promotion campaigns) - Factors in practices
- Appropriate tariff
- Optimizing costs
- Access to other sources of funding (community,
private, subsidies/taxes, credit-loan, grants,
etc.) - Financial management
- Service efficiency
18Alternative Approaches Integrated and Systems
Management
- Integration for sustainability
- System elements
- Use, transport, disposal/treatment, etc.
- Aspects
- Technical, environmental, financial/economic,
socio-cultural, institutional, and
legal/political - Stakeholders
- Central/local authorities, NGOs/CBOs, users,
private formal/informal sectors, and donor
agencies - Other urban systems
- Drainage, energy, agriculture, etc.
19Alternative Approaches Directions of Reform
- Institutional development
- Administrative decentralization
- Organizational capacity building
- Improved management functions
- Private sector participation
- Appropriate form of public-private partnership
- Mechanisms for public regulation and control
- User participation
- Community-based service provision
- Decentralizing government-based process of
management
20Alternative Approaches Strategies/Actions
- Delivering infrastructure services to meet users
demands - This must drive decisions such as what to
deliver, what technologies to employ, and how
prices should be set - Demands differ widely across cities, countries,
and industries along dimensions of accessibility,
capacity, quality, price, etc. - Infrastructure is best used to accommodate
economic activity - Greatest effect on economic growth when a minimum
complement of services is available - Improved infrastructure must come from increased
efficiency of the services - Deliver services at the lowest possible life
cycle costs for society
21Alternative Approaches Strategies/Actions
- Adequate service delivery cannot occur without a
proper financing system - Satisfactory system requires that services are
paid - Costs can be lowered and demands more effectively
met by integrating competition into service
delivery - Private sector participation through devolved
governments - The consequences of delivery must be fully
considered - Environmental standards can be achieved with
effective service delivery