Meine Pieter van Dijk

Financial and economic feasibility of decentralized wastewater reuse systems in Beijing

Many decentralized wastewater reuse systems have been constructed in Beijing. However their performance is not as good as expected. The total amount of reclaimed water used in Beijing is much less than the designed capacity. In order to understand the reasons causing such poor performance, an integrated financial and economic feasibility analysis for the decentralized wastewater reuse systems in Beijing is carried out in this paper. The monetary values of all the major economic, environmental and social effects are quantified. The financial analysis is made from the viewpoint of the project manager, while the economic analysis is done from the angle of government. The results show that the decentralized wastewater reuse systems in Beijing are economically but not financially feasible. It is found that the low rate actually charged for reclaimed water is an important reason for the system not being financially feasible. The decentralized wastewater reuse systems in Beijing may not continue to operate if the financial problems are not solved.

Role of small-scale independent providers in water and sanitation

Small-scale independent providers (SSIPs) and households are good for 10?69% of the household water supply and sometimes up to 95% of the sanitation solutions in cities in developing countries. Different types of SSIP can be distinguished. They could be allowed to make a more important contribution to drinking water and sanitation in a situation where many governments cannot be the only one to supply drinking water and sanitary services. Theoretical and practical arguments are used to explain why private sector involvement is even more frequent in sanitation than in drinking water. The issue of how to improve the efficiency in the water and sanitation sector will be raised by looking at ways to unbundle sanitation, to use technological innovations and to bring in more competition. The need for alternative technologies is stressed, since a fully fledged sewerage system in every Third World city would contribute to increased foreign debt in many countries, given that the steel and cement often need to be imported.

Public-private partnerships in basic service delivery: impact on the poor, examples from the water sector in India

What is the theory behind Public?Private Partnerships (PPPs)? In this contribution PPPs are defined as private sector involvement, where a public and a private partner share the risks related to the necessary investments. Besides complementarity, the other factors contributing to the success of PPPs will be analysed. Evidence concerning India will be used to assess which factors played a role and to suggest a PPP dialogue in India, which would involve all stakeholders before actually embarking on PPPs for urban infrastructure projects such as drinking water and sanitation. It would help to do projects in such a way that they would also benefit the urban poor.

The effect of increased private sector involvement in solid waste collection in five cities in Ghana

Private sector involvement in solid waste management in developing countries has increased, but the effect is not always clear. This study assesses how it has been organized in five cities in Ghana, what has been its effect and what lessons for private sector development in developing countries can be drawn. Data were collected from 25 private companies and a sample of 1200 households. More than 60% of solid waste in Ghanaian cities is now collected by private enterprises. Sometimes, and increasingly, competitive bidding takes place, although sometimes no bidding is organized leading to rendering of this service and no contract being signed. Local governments and local solid waste companies have not changed to more customer-oriented delivery because of the slow pace of charging users and the resulting low rate of cost recovery. The participation of the population has been limited, which contributes to low cost recovery. However, a gradual better functioning of the system put in place is shown. We observed an increasing use of competitive bidding, signing of contracts and city-wide user charging.

Private sector participation in solid waste collection in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) by involving micro-enterprises

Privatization of urban services focuses often on the involvement of foreign enterprises. This contribution deals with micro-privatization, the partial transfer of government responsibility for solid waste collection to micro-enterprises. It tries to shed light on whether the current private sector participation (PSP) of micro-enterprises in solid waste collection service is the best way to capture the expected advantages of private sector involvement. The article examines the relations of the micro-enterprises with beneficiaries and the public sector by focusing on the contract procedure, the tariff-setting process, the cost recovery mechanism and institutionalizing of market principles for micro-enterprises. The research was carried out using secondary and primary data sources. Primary data were collected through the interviewing of public sector officials at different levels, focus group discussions with community groups and micro-enterprises, and observation. A survey was conducted among 160 micro-enterprises in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using a standard questionnaire. What are some of the factors contributing to the results of PSP in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia? Policies at higher levels of government definitely produced an overall climate conducive to micro-privatization and recognized the need to develop micro-enterprises, but it is not clear what role the micro-enterprises are to play in solid waste management. New opportunities were created by formalization and taken up by communities and micro-enterprises. Coverage and waste collected both increased. The initiation and institutionalization of the formalization process was not without problems. The public sector over-stressed the autonomy of micro-enterprises. The fate of the micro-enterprises is largely determined by the reforms undertaken at local government level. The rapid changes in policies at the local level made waste-collecting micro-enterprises lose confidence and more dependent on the public sector. The study shows the continued power of the state and its agents in shaping developments in this domain.

New Public Management Reforms and Efficiency in Urban Water Service Delivery in Developing Countries: Blessing or Fad?

Managing publicly owned entities using private sector principles, commonly known as New Public Management (NPM), is a widespread reform in Developing Countries. The theoretical and empirical debate on the effect of NPM on the performance of Public entities is still ongoing, yet limited research has been conducted in the water sector in developing countries. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression on 300 observations, the influence of adopting NPM reform dimensions of segregation of functions, managerial autonomy, accountability for results, customer orientation, and market orientation on technical efficiency of urban public water utilities has been addressed. The results indicate a high likelihood of the NPM reform causing a change in the technical efficiency of the Decision-Making Units (DMUs) in National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) in Uganda though it was not the case for the DMUs of Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO) in Tanzania.

Climate change and farmers response in rural China

Important external drivers in China such as the rapid economic growth, urbanisation, climate change and a growing awareness of environmental degradation have contributed to a shift in governance structures in general and in water governance structures in particular. These external drivers result in shifting governance, which is also shifting because of more decentralisation, involvement of NGOs and CBOs in China and new opportunities for initiatives for farmers at the local level. These developments have created an enabling environment for farmers to take more initiatives, because they are relatively left behind and need to defend their own interests. In this contribution the economic incentives which play a role in these developments are analysed. Using the multi level governance concept, we will indicate the importance of existing governance structures and analyse the emerging initiatives identified in our research in the Yunnan Province in Southern China. We conclude that farmers reactions can be classified as passive or active and the active reactions can be interpreted as showing agency, used to advance their own solutions, in a situation where they are not involved in current governance structures, which are not always considered to be effective and as such this is an example of adaptive eco water management.

Beijing, managing water for the eco city of the future

Some examples of problems in the water and sanitation sector in China will be given. Subsequently, the hierarchy of Chinese Government will be explained, before describing the stakeholders in water governance at the national and municipal level. A separate section is devoted to changes in the water governance structure that have been implemented already in Beijing. Water governance has been reformed to achieve more integration and promote experiments to deal with water scarcity. We have studied some of these water and sanitation projects. In particular, the separation of grey and brown water and reusing the treated grey water and the promotion of rainwater harvesting will be discussed. The conclusion will be drawn that Beijing has moved towards integrated urban water management, but is not yet allowing adaptive and eco water management.

Sustainable Solid Waste Collection in Addis Ababa: the Usersâ Perspective

Sustainability of solid waste management is high on the agenda of urban managers. Municipalities in developing countries are incapable of meeting the demand for urban services. Some years ago Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, took the initiative to overcome some of these problems by starting a reform process. It led to a significant shift in the institutional arrangements. Community-based initiatives are becoming increasingly important as a means of addressing the deficiencies of the formal system. This paper analyzes the households’ behaviour and their opinions concerning urban solid waste management practices. Sustainability will be considered from the public health, ecological and socio-economic perspective, following the PPP framework: sustainability concerns the people, the planet, and the profit sector. Primary data consisted of a household survey and interviews of local level officials. Three types of residents were studied: those living in slums, in residential areas, and in a commercial area mixed with houses. 135 households were selected randomly in each condition. The results suggest that from a socio-economic perspective (the profit angle) the service reform suited the interests of the city community by undertaking the service provision in a more sustainable manner. Regularity, reliability, service coverage and the frequency of service delivery to the households improved. Residents also have a good feeling about cost recovery, though also differing opinions were expressed. With regard to public health (the peoples angle), improvements were observed concerning the cleanliness of the neighborhoods, while the city cleanliness lagged behind. In case of ecological sustainability (the planet perspective) economic incentives played a more important role than ecological concerns in separating and collecting reusable and recyclable items from the waste stream.

Private sector involvement according to European water liberalisation scenarios

What are the possible scenarios for the drinking water sector in Europe? This paper presents the results of the EU-financed Euromarket project. [For more information on the Euromarket project including all the freely downloadable reports, visit the website: http://www.epfl.ch/mir/euromarket.] On the basis of a transactions framework, five end states (ES) were identified as follows: End state 1 (ES1), Delegated Contracts; End state 2 (ES2), Outsourcing; End state 3 (ES3), Regulated Monopoly; End state 4 (Es4), Direct Public Management (DPM) and End state 5 (ES5), Community Management. The scenarios show more Private Sector Involvement (PSI). A distinction is made between four water markets, and the study points to increased pluralism. In most countries different models for drinking water management exist side by side according to this study. Total privatisation (through divestiture, or selling of all the shares) is not one of the scenarios discussed, for the simple reason that it hardly exists, except for England and Wales and some private water companies in the USA and in Chile. However, all scenarios show a more important role of the private sector in the future, through either Public?Private Partnerships (PPP) or other forms of PSI.