Response to World Development Movement - Water privatisation Campaign
Thank you for your recent letter about water privatisation.
DFID's policy is that where appropriate, we respond to requests from
developing country governments for assistance to help improve the efficiency of
their water utilities. Usually this involves DFID providing assistance to public
bodies. In some cases, where the developing country government has a policy for
participation of the private sector in service delivery, DFID may be asked to
advise on how this might best be done. In these cases DFID may offer technical
assistance to review the options on the type of contracts, which areas of the
utility's performance need improving, and how this might best be done through
use of the private sector.
Sierra Leone
In the case of Sierra Leone, DFID is proposing to assist the Government to
reform and improve the performance of 24 state enterprises. Poor management in
these sectors is a major obstacle to Sierra Leone's economic recovery and to
improving public services delivery, especially for the poor. DFID's assistance
is in direct response to a request from the Sierra Leone Government, and will
help ensure that transparent processes, procedures and regulations are put in
place, and that the public are accurately informed and consulted at every stage.
The water utility is one of the state owned enterprises, it is recognised that
water supply is a major problem and that reforms are required if progress is to
be made towards the Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of
people without access to safe water. The Government is currently at the early
stages of considering options for reform to decide on the most effective way to
improve the delivery of water services.
Tanzania
In the case of Dar es Salaam, the Government of Tanzania took its own
decision to pursue private sector involvement in response to a drain on scarce
budget funds caused by inefficient state-owned organisations. The Tanzanian
Government concluded that the private sector would be best placed to increase
efficiency and performance and it established an agency, the Parastatal Sector
Reform Commission for this purpose. DFID, at the request of the Tanzanian
Government, funded advice on how best to communicate its policy of working with
the private sector for service provision.
Ghana
In the case of Ghana, at the request of the government, DFID is supporting
the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission and is not directly involved with the
water services utility in Accra; DFID's support is aimed at ensuring that
reforms have a positive impact on the poor. The Government of Ghana has decided
to use other DFID funds to support improvements in small towns and rural water
supply and to build capacity in a new Directorate of Water in the Ministry of
Works and Housing.
DFID is aware that there are good and bad examples of private sector
involvement and we shouldn't - and don't - say that private sector involvement
in water supply and sanitation will be the answer everywhere. Indeed, DFID's
expenditure on water is predominantly (approximately 95% in the case of our
bilateral programme) supporting programmes for water and sanitation service
delivery through either the public sector or through community-led schemes. But
we do need to do more to increase affordable and sustainable access and we do
need to consider every option. We need to recognise that most public
distribution systems in Africa are costly, inefficient and do not meet the needs
of women and girls, who have the main responsibility for supplying water to
households. There are some good examples of grassroots solutions, but they are
not happening fast enough to meet the scale of need; over 150,000 people per day
need to gain access to safe water and double that number need to gain access to
basic sanitation if we are to achieve the MDG targets. There may be times when
the formal private sector can be part of a solution that is better for poor
people.
I hope this reply is helpful. Nearly 6,000 children across the world still
die every day because of unclean water. We all need to work together to bring
this injustice to an end.
H Benn
Secretary of State for International Development
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Last Updated 20 February 2006
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