Water supply and sanitation in developing countries: some trends to frame the water operator partner

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Water supply and sanitation in developing
countries some trends to frame the water
operator partnerships discussion

• Meike van Ginneken, World Bank
• IWA Water Operators Partnership Workshop
• The Hague, November 12th

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Overview

• Trends in WSS
• Needs and challenges for operators and how
  professional support can help
• Some thoughts on how WOP can help

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Trend 1 Population growth
Source UN Population Data
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Trend 2 Urbanization
Projected Population Developing Transition
Countries (DTC) and OECD
Rapid urban growth in secondary cities towns
Still many in fragile rural areas
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Trend 3 Historical shift in governance
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Trend 4 Decentralization
Tier of government responsible for water supply
service provision
Source Van Ginneken Kingdom, forthcoming
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The bumpy decentralization ride of some Latin
American countries
Peru
Chile
Honduras
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Aggregation Grouping of several municipalities
into a single administrative structure
Ongoing in various (diverse) countries Hungary,
Philippines, Brazil Differs from recentralization
? creating multiple ownership public companies
lowers political capture
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Trend 5 number of PSP projects going up,
going down
Source WB PPI Database
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The changing face of PSP Which operators go
where?
Source WB PPI Database
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Trend 6 all financial flows going down
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A quarter century of changes in the global WSS
sector
1980s
1990s
2000-2007
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Overview

• Trends in WSS
• Needs and challenges for operators and how
  professional support can help
• Some thoughts on how WOP can help

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What WOPS cannot not do The broader political
economy of reform

• Service improvements that an operator can make by
  itself are limited by its enabling (political)
  environment
• Water services are more controversial if service
  coverage and quality is low and tariffs at cost
  recovery tariff levels represent a large part of
  consumers expenditure
• Bringing in an external party to help can (a)
  clarify responsibilities as contracts are drawn
  up but also (b) further politicize situation

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What WOPS can do Help solve challenges that all
operators face

• How to run a water business
• How to deal with consumers.
• How to build and maintain their assets

operators know better than consultants!

• But do you know what to do, if
• Schools, hospitals and the army do not pay their
  bills
• Water quality is low because of lack of 24/7
• You can get donor financing if you could just
  do the forms

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And we have to recognize specific challenges
Between developed and developing countries
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A professional support menu for a WOPs

• Areas of know-how
• utility management
• asset management
• billing and collection
• engineering (construction, OM)
• human resources management
• procurement
• etc

• Modes of know-how transfer
• capacity building
• systems
• continuous specialist assistance
• special services

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Overview

• Trends in WSS
• Needs and challenges for operators and how
  professional support can help
• Some thoughts on how WOP can help

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The public private (non) divide
Simple slogans
Why does the state have to do so much? ..there is
no need for the state to actually do them, when a
competitive market can work so much better.Adam
Smith Institute
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The real divide Delegated management and
professional support
A utility that has lost its way, can
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How to ensure accountability for results from
both partners?

• Financial flows
• Selecting partners
• Type of fees (fixed or performance based)
• Contractual arrangements