The performance of public utilities in low-income countries with respect to service to all customers, and particularly lower-income urban consumers, is understood to be limited in many cases. The Government of Ghana chose to implement a private sector management contract in order to deliver significant change in service delivery and financial viability. The five year management contract with Aqua Vitens Rand Limited ran from 2006 to 2011 and was not renewed. This study investigates the public utility outcomes, both as a state owned corporation and a state owned limited liability Company, and compares those outcomes with the achievements of the private operator through a Management Contract. The latter two management models operated under the oversight of the newly formed economic regulator, the Public Utility Regulatory Commission in 1999 and any effect of that regulation is considered. The hypothesis of the study developed in 2008 was that “a management contract would not provide the necessary level of empowerment, incentives and commitment and access to resources for a private operator to adequately and efficiently perform even where there is an established economic regulator with a clear mandate”. The case study approach was employed for the study data was gathered on the operations, activities, regulation and management of the urban water utility through documentary review, key-informant interviews, household surveys, public hearing meetings and user observations. However, three major cities including Accra, Kumasi and Tamale were used for the household survey. These three cities were carefully picked out taking into account the political, economic, geographical, social and cultural significance that each of the them represents and commands in Ghana.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / The aim of this investigation was to provide a framework or strategy for prioritising and implementing regional groundwater monitoring in the Olifants-Doorn Water Management (WMA) area. The general approach was to attempt to reconcile monitoring requirements with existing resources, while investigating the hypothesis that regional monitoring should focus on resource status monitoring. Groundwater science needs to focus on clarifying the sustainability options available to the stakeholders, and monitoring the chosen option. This can best be done by adopting an adaptive management approach to both the management of the groundwater resources, and the management of the monitoring programme. / South Africa

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study focuses on the contradictory ways officials frame the problem of providing water services in Kampala with specific emphasis on the debates about framing of key factors that constrain delivery. Perceptions about and framing of policy issues implicitly suggest the causes of problems. Policy scholars acknowledge that formulating policy is “messy” and that it is about values, and not as “evidence-based” as is often assumed. Using a social constructionist perspective that stresses that perceptions tell one how people define situations, this study demonstrates the often contradictory ways that state officials see public problems. Drawing on debates about rational and muddling-through approaches, the study uses thirty structured questionnaires and several semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore the narratives of government officials regarding policy formulation in water delivery. The thesis found that almost all officials see rapid growth in population density in informal areas coupled with unplanned settlements as the single biggest combined issue inhibiting progress. Officials favoured market-related solutions even though their diagnosis of the problem suggested more concerted and comprehensive public planning of urban development.

Background: The cholera epidemic experienced in the province of KwaZulu-¬Natal between August 2000 and July 2001 resulted in 105, 000 reported cases of cholera and 220 human deaths. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to make comparison between districts with cholera and districts with no cholera in rural KwaZulu-Natal on the basis of known risk factors for cholera and diarrhoeal diseases. Comparison was made with regards to key factors such as the prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases, the provision of safe water supply, ownership and effective utilization of sanitary facilities, knowledge and practice on water purification and prevention of cholera. Methods and materials: This was a descriptive, cross- sectional, ecological and comparative study among households of KwaZulu-Natal. The communities were stratified into two groups. One group had cholera (Group 1) and the other group (Group 2) had no cholera. Thirty communities were selected by systematic random selection from each of the two groups. From each community, eligible households were selected using simple random sampling technique. Trained field workers used a pre-tested questionnaire to collect data during the months of November and December 2001. Statistical procedures such as two-sample tests on means and proportions, Pearson's chi-square tests of association, odds ratios, binary logistic regression analysis, sensitivity tests, specificity tests and ROC (receiver of characteristics) analysis were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 1420 households from both groups were included in the study. The response rate for Group 1 and Group 2 was 84%,92%. Female respondents (70%) predominated male respondents (30%). Tap water supply was less common in Group 1 (54%) than in Group 2 (72%), (p< 0.05). A higher percentage of households in Group 1 (27%) used dam or river water compared to Group 2 (20%) (p<0.05). Household knowledge on water purification by boiling was (71%) in Group 1 and (87%) (p<0.05) in Group 2.38% of households in Group 1 practiced water purification by using disinfectant JIK. The corresponding figure for Group 2 was 50% (p<0.05). Groups 1 and 2 were similar with respect to ownership of toilets (84% and 85% respectively). Groups 1 and 2 showed a marked difference with respect to utilization of toilet facilities by all family members (70% and 89% respectively). The prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases for Group 1 was higher (14.3%) (p<0.05) than the Group 2 was (11.1%). Factors found to be helpful for protection against diarrhoeal diseases were the boiling of water (OR=0.41, 95% CI, 0.19-0.90) and the use of disinfectant JIK (OR=0.45, 95% CI, 0.19-0.94). The study also showed that the use of dam or river water was significantly associated with diarrhoeal diseases (OR=2.92, 95% CI, 1.06-7.80). Conclusion: The results showed that there was significant difference between the two groups of households in regards to basic provision of safe water, knowledge and practice of good hygiene, ownership and effective utilization of sanitary facilities. Findings from this study could be useful as baseline information for future planning, monitoring and evaluation of ongoing programmes. / Dissertation (MSc(Epidemiology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / unrestricted

A water use and availability study was conducted at the Dzindi Irrigation Scheme in Limpopo Province. The problems experienced at Dzindi Irrigation Scheme regarding water allocation, concern water availability at a field level. Although water is continuously being diverted into the main canal, farmers at the bottom end of the system claim not to receive adequate water supplies, forcing them to practice dry land irrigation (farming). Water losses occur between the source and the point of application, and the causes of loss need to be identified so that water availability can be improved. The study focused on water released to Block 2, and an analysis was made of all losses which occur from the weir where water is released to the point of application in the fields. An estimation of water supplies that return to the river as an unused delivery, and conveyance losses that occur along the distribution channels, were determined through a water balance drawn up from measured canal inflows, such as seepage and evaporation. A total volume of 371096 m3 was supplied to Block 2 during a 45 day monitoring period. For a planted area of 16.52 ha, this works out to 22463 m3 /ha supplied, or a relative irrigation supply of 14.2 times the irrigation requirement. Losses originate from a number of sources. Results indicated that losses that occurred in the main canal were very low, with a conveyance efficiency of 96% recorded. Knowledge of irrigation water management and practical irrigation scheduling at a scheme level is weak. The biggest immediate need is to improve the management of the infrastructure. The main system capacity is adequate, and losses due to seepage, evaporation and return flows are within acceptable limits. The return flows are mostly caused by the farmers’ lack of understanding that led to them removing the entire sluice gates at the head of the secondary canals of Block 2. This results in water running to the first two secondary canals only, and not reaching the rest of the Block. Based on the requirements identified by all the stakeholders, training should be provided to the water bailiffs and farmers to implement management practices that are both effective and sustainable. Together with prioritised infrastructure upgrading, more acceptable water delivery should be possible. The challenge lies in making the technical and the social aspects converge in such a way that the result is acceptable to both systems and can be sustained over time. The opportunities for capacity building by equipping thestakeholders with new skills are considerable, but the time and effort required to achieve this should not be underestimated. / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Rural Engineering Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Civil Engineering / unrestricted

This thesis documents the genealogy of the development of Jakarta’s urban water supply infrastructure from 1873 (the inception of the first colonial water supply network) to the present. Using an analytical framework of governmentality, supplemented by insights from postcolonial studies and political ecology, the thesis explains the highly unequal patterns of water access in Jakarta as the product of (post)colonial governmentalities, whose relations of power are expressed not only through discursive categories and socio-economic relations, but also through material infrastructures and urban spaces. The thesis presents material from the colonial archives, Jakarta’s municipal archives, and the publications of international development agencies and engineering consultancy firms. This is combined with primary data derived from interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation of the implementation of current pro-poor water supply projects in Jakarta. This data is used to document how water supply is implicated in the discursive and material production of the city and its citizens, and to challenge conventional developmentalist and academic analyses of water supply access. Specifically, a conceptual triad of water, space, and populations – produced through, but also productive of government rationalities – is used to explain two apparent paradoxes: (1) the fragmentation of access in Jakarta despite a century of concerted attempts to develop a centralized system; and (2) the preferences of lower-income households for non-networked water supply, despite its higher cost per unit volume. This analysis hinges on an elucidation of the relationships between urban governance and urban infrastructure, which documents the interrelated process of differentiation of types of water supply, water use practices, populations, and urban spaces from the colonial period to the present. This, in turn, is used to explain the barriers being encountered in current pro-poor water supply development projects in Jakarta. The thesis thus makes a contribution to current academic debates over the ‘colonial present’. The contribution is both theoretical – in the emphasis placed upon the materiality of governmentality – and empirical. Finally, the thesis also makes a contribution to the urban and development studies literatures through its reinterpretation of the urban ‘water crisis’. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

An enthusiastic global campaign on intervention in water in the Lower Income Countries (LICs) was launched by the UN at the International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICEW), in Rio de Janerio, in January of 1992. In June of the same year, in Dublin, a plan of action was devised and a commitment to the water related goals highlighted in Rio de Janerio was made. Close to fifteen years on, there is little to show by way of success in the intended countries. Over 1.1 billion people in the LICs lack safe water. The direct impact of this is a higher risk of waterborne diseases. The waterborne diseases claim 42,000 lives every week in the LICs. By any standards this is a serious depletion of the human capital stock. Looked at in light of the fact that these countries still heavily rely on labour in production, amplifies the need to preserve health. The inherent danger posed by the poor quality water‐ as can be drawn from the above statistics‐ seems to suggest that improving the quality of water would go a long way in improving and preserving societal health in the LICs. By implication this would improve the productivity of the workers. Other benefits include cost mitigation, improved investor confidence as well as increased tourists’ confidence‐ all of which are vital for LICs’ growth prospects. It begs the question of why these countries have not improved their water quality. With specific reference made to Uganda, this research is bent on answering this question. In Uganda, there is consensus among scientists that the ground and open water sources are degraded to dangerous levels. Water quality parameters like turbidity, coliform count, and colour are all above the WHO minimum specifications for potable water and are on the rise in the country. This is indicative of water quality deterioration and it heightens the risk of waterborne diseases to the users. The waterborne burden of disease in Uganda is on the rise with a high fatality rate of 440 lives every week. The need to improve water quality in the country has been acknowledged. However, attempts to address the problem have only been undertaken on a small scale, most notable of these being the PuR home water treatment vii program. There is evidence in the country that the water quality would have apparent benefits. Strong correlations have been found between improved health in HIV patients and improved water quality in the country. In the economics of health, improving societal health inherently improves workers’ performance and productivity, leading to higher growth of the economy. There is an economic imperative therefore, as to why countries like Uganda should improve their water quality. In spite of this, even the country’s most urbanized setting‐ Kampala‐ lacks potable water. This study therefore investigates why, in a time when not only the global agenda is more supportive than ever and when the country’s water resources have been found to be risky to use, Uganda has not improved water quality. Kampala is used as the model district for this study. The district accounts for three quarters of users of treated water in the country. The problem is investigated by assessing the efficiency case of such a project (a water quality improving project) in the country; the methodology employed to this end is the Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The methodology compares the costs and benefits of a project, in monetary terms, in the same analysis, over its useful life. In the application of CBA one allows for the time value of money by using the discount rate to make the costs and benefits of the project occurring in different years comparable. In principle, the methodology is simple to apply‐ only that issues arise in the quantification of benefits and the determination of the discount rate. Benefits of the Kampala water quality, improving project include non‐market values and for this reason a non‐market valuation technique, the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), was employed in their quantification. The CVM technique estimates the benefits by measuring the individuals’ willingness to pay for the improved scenario‐ in this case the scenario was one with a water quality‐improving project. The application of the CVM across many disciplines has invited a lot of criticism over the reliability of its estimates as a measure of value. A panel assembled by the North Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to investigate the reliability of the CVM resolved that as long as the CVM was well conducted, the generated results would reliably predict non‐market values. The Kampala CVM, for the benefits’ quantification, was conducted with the NOAA guidelines in mind. The final value of the project’s benefits was the WTP predicted for the viii median respondent namely Ushs 385.07/= per cubic meter of water. The discount rate was deemed to be the social opportunity cost of capital in the country, viz 12 percent, this being that rate of return foregone by investing in another sector. The project’s costs were arrived at through liaison with water engineers and consulting past data from Uganda’s Water suppliers. From this, the project’s fixed costs were predicted to be Ushs 1451/= per cubic meter of water and the operation and maintenance costs predicted to be Ushs 591.7/= per cubic meter of water. The project’s useful life was deemed to be the average life of a Ugandan, namely 52 years; this choice reflecting the belief that the benefits would last over the users’ whole life. The results of the Kampala water quality‐improving project indicate that the project would not be feasible. It did not matter what discount rate one employed, the project’s operating and maintenance (OM) costs exceed the benefits. The results offer an indication as to why water quality has not been improved in Uganda‐ because the paying population is unwilling to pay for the entire cost of the project. This deduction is not to suggest that the users do not recognize the benefits of the project. The unpleasant truth is that the users’ incomes are typically stretched so thin by other demands that a decision to make more deductions from these incomes is not an inviting one. However, there is a need to improve water quality in LICs like Uganda, as can be deduced from the analysis of the risks of not doing so and benefits of doing so. Accordingly, such projects have to be funded by mechanism that does not require the users to cover the whole cost, but only part of such a cost, with the remainder from other sources like NGOs and foreign aid.

The sustainability of South Africa municipal water services provision is being challenged by the desire of government to extend high quality services from a relatively small portion of the population to the whole. Evidence of failures in delivery are mounting and many reasons for this have been identified, including a lack of political will at local government levels, low budget priority, insufficient capital, lack of capacity and skill and flawed tariff and accounting structures. This study generates new perspectives by surveying selected but representative, South African municipalities in their capacities as water service authorities (WSAs) on a range of financial sustainability issues – including cost burden on users, cross sub-subsidisation and cost calculations to set tariffs. The study is part of a wider investigation into the setting of tariffs that cover costs and satisfy demand, funded and advised by the Water Research Commission (WRC). The conclusions and recommendations of WRC Project K3/2087 (Hosking, 2011b) are to address: 1. The choice of water service provider, including the private utility option; 2. Market vulnerabilities in water service provision under alternate models of supply; 3. The determination and realisation of full cost recovery; 4. Demand responsiveness/sensitivity of local government supply; 5. The increasing block tariff (IBT) tariff structure; and 6. Abuse of dominance in the market process. Given the limited perspective (i.e. a focus on WSAs), some important national water sustainability issues are given less prominence, e.g. raw water availability and national government capacity to subsidise water service delivery. The key water service sustainability elements on which attention was focused in this study are: • Backlogs in the water service coverage and infrastructure rehabilitation and maintenance. • Standard of water service indicators. • Relative importance of the provision of water services in water service authorities’ strategy and implementation (including budget and risk). • Adequacy of skills to provide a sustainable water service. • Budgeting and planning for the sustainability of the water service. • Adequacy of the costing and tariff setting nexus, with particular attention paid to method and principle. A survey was used to elicit information from selected municipalities (Chapter Four). The municipalities which formed part of the sample and were surveyed were: 1. Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality; 2. Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality; 3. eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality; 4. Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality; 5. Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality; 6. George Municipality; 7. uMhlathuze (Richards Bay) Municipality; 8. Steve Tshwete (Middleburg) Municipality; 9. Kouga Municipality; 10. Sol Plaatjie (Kimberley) Municipality; 11. Polokwane Municipality; 12. Stellenbosch Municipality; 13. Overstrand Municipality; 14. Midvaal Municipality; and 15. Amathole District Municipality.

South Africa’s private sector and the practice of using market processes are often dismissed by the government as service providing options, because they increase costs and fail the poor population. There is some substance to the government’s position, given that there is a natural monopoly advantage in water service provision. Under these circumstances it could be expected that a single firm would emerge as dominant in the provision of these services to urban customers. Were this firm a private one, and unregulated, it could be expected to practice exploitative pricing, make excess profits, and undersupply waste water management service. A private firm would also not provide services to the poor unless their service was subsidised. However most of these deficiencies can be regulated (as shown in Chapter Four), and also occur under public sector provision (as shown in Chapter Five) Are the private sector failures sufficient reason to abandon the market and private sector as mechanisms to deliver water service in South Africa? This dissertation finds little use is made of market processes and the private sector in water service provision (Chapter One), despite there being legal provision for such involvement (Chapter Two). It also finds that public water service providers are not subject to competition policy and consumer protection provisions, whereas private sector providers would be (Chapter Three). The administration of questionnaires to municipalities and the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) show that the various water service providers often operate under unique circumstances, making it difficult to extrapolate management insights from one municipality to another (Chapter Six). A case study on Nelson Mandela Bay Municipal tariff setting reveals a mismatch between economic principle and policy practice, and suggests that economic principle plays a lesser role in the design of tariff structures than other factors (Chapter Seven). Given the problems that are occurring in public sector water service provision, the dissertation concludes the case for dismissing private sector or public utility models for water service delivery may be weaker than is believed by the South African government.

The contribution of acquisition of Veolia group with Czech water supply companies to the Czech Republic. The assessment of Veolia's influence to Czech environment, to quality of citizen's daylife and to economics of the Czech Republic. Comparison with other water service suppliyng companies.