Issue 2 - How can the private sector help provide access to drinking water in developing countries?

By Luc Rigouzzo, Proparco's Chief Executive Officer

One of Proparco’s core mandates is to meet the basic infrastructure needs of populations in South countries via the private sector. Developing countries suffer from serious deficits in that field. Access to drinking water, in particular, is far from being widespread and sanitation services are scarce. We have thus decided to devote to that theme this second issue of Private Sector and Development – a bimonthly magazine that compares the opinions of our community of investors with those of academic experts and members of civil society.

By examining progress achieved and problems encountered by 65 Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) implemented on different continents, a recent World Bank study is providing some objective facts from an analysis of the practice. Overall, the performance achieved by PPPs in terms of improving access, service quality and operating efficiency has been quite satisfactory, even though the level of private investment has proved disappointing >> Download Philippe Marin's paper

Although Public-Private Partnerships may have achieved relatively disappointing results in terms of extending access to water for poor populations, the arrival of private operators has nevertheless often allowed authorities to better define their public service objectives and give a political dimension to access to water for all. International operators also constitute a source of innovation and make it possible to tailor supply to the poorest populations; in future, local entrepreneurs will have to fully participate in this objective >> Download Aymeric Blanc and Lise Breuil's paper

The various experiences of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in developing countries have underscored the importance of participative management and dialogue among stakeholders. They are indeed prerequisites for their success. During a thirteen-year concession, the Argentine company Aguas Argentinas, a subsidiary of Suez, consequently had to innovate in Buenos Aires by going beyond the strictly contractual framework of the PPP in order to provide a response to specific social issues which call into serious question the responsibility, positioning and action of private operators in the management of essential services in developing countries >> Download the Alexandre Brailowsky's paper

IGD has designed the concept of Quadrilogues – four-party dialogues – based on the observation that the success of public-private partnerships depends on the various stakeholders’ capacity to dialogue. They provide an original setting for consultation among players involved in the management of public services – particularly in the water sector – and promote and structure their exchanges. Operators play a key role in the Quadrilogues in terms of informing and interpellating, and they also act as a safeguard. In doing so, they clearly contribute to giving the entire private sector legitimacy to manage essential services >> Download the Jean-Marie Tétard's paper

The World Economic Forum’s public-private water initiative in South Africa and India showed that “Brokerage Networks”, involving stakeholders across all sectors, proved successful in conceptualising, and implementing water projects aimed at both boosting economic growth and satisfying human needs. The Indian initiative focussed on many small-scale multi-stakeholder water projects endorsed by the government and brought satisfying results. Less successfully, multi-municipality water projects were planned, but not implemented, in South Africa. Many lessons can be learned from these experiences >> Download the Chritoph Jakob's paper

Veolia designs and implements specific programs for access to water, sanitation and electricity services for all. Water tariff policies are core to the success of programs to develop access to essential services. They must be made “socially acceptable” by reducing production costs and bearing the cost of network connections. Veolia’s experience shows that it is necessary to innovate – technically as much as socially – in order to provide the poorest with “tailor-made” community-based solutions and flexible services >> Download the Patrice Fonlladosa's paper

There is a gradually rising trend in developing countries towards more professionally managed urban drinking water services as a result of delegation to private companies. The integration of a new generation of often small-scale national private operators into water distribution networks certainly contributes to the implementation of a public service of good quality. It is, however, also a new and complex challenge that States and donors must address today >> Download the Bertrand Dardenne's paper