Pekka E. Pietilä

The Finnish Experience

Water and wastewater services in Finland are, according to international comparisons, exceptionally well organised. In Finland, as in industrialised countries in general, the public sector and particularly the municipalities have played a central role in the development of these services. Although municipalities are legally responsible for water and wastewater service provision, they do not have to produce these services themselves, and there are several alternatives for the ownership and operational management. There is no single model for how water and wastewater services should be organised—not even within a single country. Water and wastewater services should be looked at as multi-dimensional activities within a wider institutional context considering the roles of all stakeholders.1 1 This paper is based on several studies, especially on case studies produced by the European Union-funded projects PRINWASS (http://users.ox.ac.uk/∼prinwass/) and WaterTime (http://www.watertime.net/), the UNRISD project on private sector involvement in water supply as well as the recent doctoral dissertation of the first author (Pietilä, 2006).

Assessing Regional Cooperation in Water Services Finnish Lessons Compared With International Findings

Water services, that is, water supply and wastewater disposal, are traditionally the responsibility of local governments. Many municipalities have joined forces to meet the challenges of increasing water quality requirements, aging infrastructures, and decreasing fiscal resources. Regional cooperation is claimed to generate benefits in various ways, but there are challenges to this assumption. This article assesses the benefits and challenges of regional cooperation through the following categories: economies of scale, socioeconomic and spatial disparities, autonomy and legitimacy, by comparing Finnish experiences with previous research findings. Our assessment concludes that the benefits and challenges of regional cooperation are not straightforward, not only dependent on the local context but also on the level and tradition of cooperation, especially on the degree of organizational autonomy.

Role of Municipalities in Water Services in Namibia and Lithuania

Before gaining independence in 1990, both Namibia and Lithuania were part of a country ruled by a strong central government. Since independence, both countries have decentralized their administrative structure to a large degree, and local authorities have assumed a vital role as providers of services to citizens. Public water services are among the key responsibilities of local authorities. The conditions under which municipalities provide water services are quite different in these two countries. Lithuania was independent between the two world wars, and water supply was the responsibility of municipalities but transferred to state water companies during the Soviet regime. In Namibia, only a few of the largest towns operated their own water services before independence, and the rest of the country was taken care of by the centrally managed Department of Water Affairs. This article examines how well this worthy principle of decentralization has succeeded and how well local authorities have managed in their task to provide water services to the citizens.

Inadequacy of positivistic research to explain complexity of water management

The paper looks at alternative scientific research approaches and traditions related to Water Resources Management (WRM) and Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) services. How can they explain the problem-oriented water governance challenges, and how do they apply to multi- and inter-disciplinary research? It is argued that the bias in favour of a positivistic approach and natural sciences in water research prevents adequate answers to wider water governance challenges and institutional and management issues. Water research should be expanded to include diverse multi-, pluri-, cross-, inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches as joint efforts, while individuals could be encouraged to seek transdisciplinarity.

Features of Water Cooperatives: A Comparative Study of Finland and Kenya:

There are several ways of arranging rural water supply. One of these is through water cooperatives that have been established to provide water supply, irrigation, and/or sewerage services. Water cooperatives are found in developed countries such as Finland, Denmark, Austria, Canada, and United States, and in developing countries in South America, such as Bolivia and Chile. Water cooperatives or their equivalent organizations that exist in Kenya are called self-help water projects. Yet, surprisingly little attention has been paid to this option even in countries with rich tradition of cooperatives in other sectors. In this study, Finland and Kenya were selected for a comparative analysis of the identified features of water cooperatives. Best practices observed in the features with differences could be shared between the two countries.

Indigenous Practices of Water Management for Sustainable Services: Case of Borana and Konso, Ethiopia

This article explores the possibility of incorporating traditional water management experiences into modern water management. After the literature review, two case studies are presented from Borana and Konso communities in southern Ethiopia. The study was conducted through interviews, discussions, and observations. The two cases were selected due to their long existence. Both communities have their own water source types, depending on local hydrogeological conditions. Borana is known for the so-called Ella (wells) and Konso for Harta (ponds), which have been managed for more than five centuries. All government and development partners strive to achieve sustainable services in water supply and sanitation. Therefore, they design various management packages to engage the communities and keep the systems sustainable. However, the management components are often designed with little attention to local customs and traditions. The cases in the two communities show that traditional knowledge is largely ignored when replaced by modern one. However, the concepts of cost recovery, ownership experience, equity, enforcement, integrity, and unity, which are highly pronounced in modern systems, can also be found in the traditional water managements of Borana and Konso. Naturally, one shoe never fits all. Borana and Konso experiences are working for their own community. This research implies that when we plan a project or a program for a particular community, the starting point should be the indigenous practices and thoughts on life.

Tighter Contracts or More Trust? Outsourcing in Finnish Water Utilities:

This article discusses the outsourcing of water utility operations and the prerequisites for successful partnerships between water utilities and external service providers. A questionnaire survey in Finland indicated that the outsourcing of various water utility operations will increase in the future. This trend includes great opportunities to utilize the best features of external service providers and efficiently develop the water services sector. However, the outsourcing also includes risks because there is a lack of trust between water utilities and private companies. Therefore, “hard,” rigid contracts are preferred to reduce the uncertainty in outsourcing such undertakings. In uncertain conditions, this approach may not be an effective and fruitful development path in the long term. If relationships are more trust based, uncertainty can actually strengthen these relationships. Thus, more attention should be paid to building trust instead of intensively attempting to reduce uncertainty.