Reliable Water Connection for Millions

This report which was announced at the World Water Forum in Istanbul in March 2009 complements the detailed statistical work published earlier in 2009. The World Bank report shows that overall local and international private companies deliver much more benefit to the populations and governments of developing countries than is generally recognised.

According to the report, private operators working under contract to public authorities:

• contribute significantly to the Millennium Development Goals to provide access to safe drinking water in the developing countries, particularly for poor people.

• improve the performance of water supply, in particular the continuity of service by increasing the number of hours a day that water is available

• improve the operating efficiency of water services: reduction of leaks from the system, improvement of cash collection, increase in productivity, etc

• do not cause price rises that are higher than for public management under the equivalent conditions

• act as a catalyst to progress in neighbouring districts.

The study quantifies the improvement in the access to safe drinking water. The World Bank study examines in detail 36 contracts in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Initially these contracts supplied 48 million people. Private company management over a period of a decade has permitted an additional 25 million people to gain access to reliable water networks. This represents an increase of 50% in the number of people benefiting from a good public water service.

These results explain the regular growth in the number of public authorities who call on professional private operators to manage their water supply systems in developing countries. This growth has also been measured by the World Bank (see figure below). The population directly supplied by private operators through the contracts identified in the study rose from a few  millions in 1991 to exceed 160 million people in 2007. In recent years, this growth is mainly attributable to local operators from the countries concerned.

The World Bank estimates that approximately 7% of the urban population of developing countries is supplied with water on a daily basis by private companies.