Mitigating the Global Water and Sanitation Challenges
The provision of Water and Sanitation Services is of paramount importance as it provides the foundation for sustainable development. ¨Global trends show provision of water and sanitation services is still inadequate:
- 1.1 billion people have no access to safe water services, and 2.6 billion have no access adequate sanitation services
- the provision of water and sanitation services in the developing World have lagged behind that of the developed countries.
Indeed , the challenges facing the Water and Sanitation Industry in the developing countries are generic and homogenous in nature. The cost of failing to properly address the water and sanitation gap is significantly higher than the cost of addressing it.The question is what are the prevailing Global water and sanitation challenges?
Content Table
- Mitigating the Global Water and Sanitation Challenges
Global Challenges
The Financing Gap
Slide 5 Infrastructure needs in most developing countries are enormous.There is scarcity of resources because;
- Full cost recoveryTariffs still a myth
- Private sector financing not readily available
- Returns in the water sector are long term in nature
- Government funding is over stretched
- Donor funding ebbing
But even where financing is not a major problem, there are still gaps in the provision of water and sanitation services.
Climate Change
Slide 6 Unfamiliar draught and excess rains
- Intermittent supply leading to back siphoning- recontamination of piped water
- Flooding leading to destruction of works and mains, recontamination of potable water
Lowering of lake/river levels - affecting the Quantity & quality of water & leading to increased production costs
Destruction of land cover - through human activities - Pollution and siltation.
Destruction of wetlands - Natural Filtration system destroyed.
Provision of Services to the Poor
Social dislocation resulting in high rate of urbanization and increase in urban poor on increase settlements
Challenge of serving the poor due to the unplanned settlements & the question on who should pay?
The Sanitation Challenge
Generally provision of sanitation services tends to lag behind that of Water services. This is attributed to a number of factors including;
- High cost of piped water sewerage services.
- The institutional fragmentation for provision of sanitation services with no clear responsibility
- The proliferation of on-site sanitation facilities.
The rapid urbanization places a major challenge in providing sustainable sanitation
Inefficient Management
Slide 9 The greatest challenges is lack of competent, efficient, business-like and service-oriented institutions.
Most institutions are characterised by
- Poor Governance: Corruption
- Poor Leadership : lack of foresightedness & priorities
- Operational inefficiencies.
- Poor Organizational culture
NWSC´s response to Global Challenges
NWSC
NWSC is a utility parastatal 100% owned by The Government of Uganda. It was established in 1972 under decree No: 34. The mandate of the Corporation as defined in the National Water & Sewerage Corporation Statute of 1995, Section 5 (1), is to operate and provide water and sewerage services in areas entrusted to it, on a sound, commercial and viable basis.
NWSC Situation in 1998
Quote World Bank at that time:
Over the last 10 years, the GOU in partnership with the World Bank and Other Donors have made significant investments (over US $ 100 million) in the Urban Water and Sewerage sector. These investments have contributed immensely in rehabilitating the existing infrastructure under the NWSC management. Unfortunately, these investments have not been matched with the necessary efficient commercial and financial management capacity that can ensure the delivery of sustainable services in the medium to long-term”.
initiatives undertaken
Formulated both Long Term and Short Term Plans
- Policy Level - change in Board & Management
Medium – Term
- 3-year Corporate Plan
- 3 sets of Performance Contracts with Government (2000-2003,2003-2006, and now 2006-2009
- Annual Budgets
Short – Term Strategies - Short Tactical turnaround programmes
Building an efficient organization
- Slide 13 Setting priorities - 100- Days programme
- Customer focus & stakeholder engagement - SEREP
- Organisational culture change - Stretch-out & One Minute Management
- Increased managerial autonomy/decentralization/empowerment – APC & IDAMCs
- Adopting private sector like management principles of commercialisation and use of Incentives & competition to drive performance
- Developed MIS - improved communication, operations and feedback systems
- Increased accountability and effective monitoring systems – checkers system
- Capacity building of staff and extensive research in collaboration with key institutions
- Networking and benchmarking with peers for best practices – External Services
Addressing the Financing challenge
Full Cost Recovery Tariffs still remain a myth in most institutions
- Carried out Tariff reforms - Protected Tariff through Indexation
- Improved financial performance through improved operational efficiency.
- The Government responded to NWSC’s plea’s and restructured the Debt into Equity, which enabled the NWSC access market finance hedged upon the improved balance sheet.
A Cocktail funding options used corresponding to the nature of investment.
- Internally Generated Resources - For Minor Works and Flagship Investments
- Loans- viable investments
- Direct Grants : For Social Mission and New Large works e.g. Sanitation, New Treatment facilities
- Government Budget provisions: For Social Mission and New Facilities
- Market Finance: Novel mechanism for Viable and emergency works
- Output Based Aid: To serve the poor
Adopting to Climatic Change
- Slide 15 Implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) with other stakeholders - Lead agencies (NWSC) effectively operating according to their respective mandates
- Implementation of Water Safety Plans, which are a holistic risk based water supply system management approach
- More cost-effective and efficient water treatment technologies (e.g. coagulation polymers)
- Extension of raw water abstraction pipes in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja
- Planned construction of a new water works, for Greater Kampala, away from the Inner Murchison Bay, towards Mukono in search of a cleaner source
- Protection of the quality of water in the inner Murchison Bay of Lake Victoria through improved sanitation in Kampala
Provision of Services to the Poor
- Slide 16 Established a dedicated Pro-poor to attend to the special needs of the poor qConstructed more than 1,370 km of new water mains – targeting mainly peri-urban areas
- Construction of Stand posts (on average of 300 per annum) and promotion of yard taps due to Short Falls of Stand posts
- Subsidised New Connections under the new water connection policy
- Cross subsidy tariff with special consideration for the poor.
addressing the Sanitation Challenge
- Slide 17 Subsidized access through a simplified sewerage connection policy.
- Low cost sanitation technologies e.g Eco-san, Vacutag etc for urban poor and water logged areas - Working with local Partners to define the urban poor initiatives.
- Implementation of the Sanitation Master Plan Project in Kampala and other major Towns
- New state-of –art sewage treatment plant to be constructed soon in Kampala using innovative and appropriate technologies (takes care of urban stormwater as well) – embracing innovative solution & not follow traditional transiting paths
Achievements
Sharing experiences and benchmarking
Through the External Services Unit, NWSC shares its experiences and initiatives with other utilities and institutions within and outside Africa.
Services Offered:
Advisory Services, e.g. Organizational behavior change, Contract design and incentive systems, water losses reduction initiatives
Core Utility Services, in the field of water losses reduction, plant and distribution system maintenance
Who have benefited from our Services?
- Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company, Lake Victoria Water services Board, Athi River Water Services Board, NZOWASCO Ltd: Kenya,
- Nkana Water; Lusaka Water and Sewerage Co Ltd: Zambia ¨DAWASA/DAWASCO: Dar-es-Salaam: Tanzania ¨Karachi Water and Sewerage Co.: Pakistan
- New Delhi Water Board and Several Water Municipality Water Boards in India
- Towns under the Directorate of Water Development - Uganda.
Conclusion
Slide 20 Global challenges are a reality
The NWSC has adopted itself to the Global challenges by implementing tailor made strategies. Some of these strategies can be replicated to other utilities
A publically managed utility/organisation in the developing world can become efficient, viable and provide good service to its customers and adopt to the global challenges
Resources
The issues in this article were covered in the presentation, MITIGATING THE GLOBAL WATER AND SANITATION CHALLENGES: THE NWSC EXPERIENCE, presented at the Australian National Water Conference by Dr. William T. Muhairwe.
For more information & literature on the NWSC experience read: Making Public Enterprises Work, available at www.iwapublishing.com
References
William T. Muhairwe, Making Public Enterprises Work, IWA Publishing, 2009, ISBN: 9781843393245
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