Almost fifty percent of the developing world’s population – 2.5 billion people – lack improved sanitation facilities, and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources. Public-private partnerships can help improve access to safe water and sanitation services by providing a number of services such as delivering service to households, building new infrastructure, improving technology or using clean technology to better meet the needs of the community.

See below documents and links relating to Water and Sanitation sector reform, regulation and PPP projects:

• Water and Sanitation Laws and Regulation

• Water and Sanitation Utility Reform

  • Empresas Mixtas / Joint Ventures

• Water and Sanitation Agreements

• Water Management, Operation, Maintenance Contracts

• Water Concessions and Build-Own-Transfer

• Lease and Affermage Contracts

• Water and Sewerage/Wastewater Bulk Supply Agreements

• Small Water Providers: Rural and Peri-urban

• PPPs in Irrigation

• Theft / Non-Technical Losses

  • Legislation and Practical Measures:

  Cambodia
  Colombia

• Toolkits - Water and Sanitation

• Further Reading

If you have suggestions on topics or materials to be included, please contact us at ppp@worldbank.org.

Further Reading

• Ways To Improve Water Services by Making Utilities Accountable (2008) This review aims to help those who work in and with water utilities, as well as organized users, regulators, and policymakers to improve the quality of water services by making service providers more accountable to the people they serve.
• Public-Private Partnerships for Urban Water Utilities: A Review of Experiences in Developing Countries (2010) This report analyzes the market growth of PPPs in the developing world since 1990, and the performance of more than 65 large water PPP projects―representing more than 100 million people―for access, service quality, operational efficiency, and tariff levels.

• Characteristics of Well Performing Public Water Utilities - Water Supply & Sanitation Working Notes (pdf) This report presents findings on attributes of well-run public utilities and attempts to identify important factors that influence their performance. The scope is also largely oriented to utilities that serve urban communities, but with varying characteristics and service objectives. 

• Key Topics in Public Water Utility Reform (2008) This report presents a framework of attributes of well-functioning utilities and how they have introduced key institutional changes. It aims to help water and sanitation sector practitioners choose and apply public utility reform approaches. The report concludes that structural trends are altering the landscape in which water utilities operate and that these alterations offer opportunities for change.

• Privatization - Chilean Experience in Water (pdf) During the 1980s and 1990s the Chilean water and sanitation sector underwent deep reforms so that private capital could finance the huge investments needed to achieve universal ser vice. The regulatory framework put into place cleared the way for massive private equity. But users have also paid the price of transforming the heavily subsidized sector into a self-sustaining industry able to provide universal coverage. This note examines key features of the new regulatory scheme that have contributed to the sustainability of the reforms: a phased approach, an efficient pricing policy and methodology, and expert panels to deal with conflict resolution.

• Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality This study finds that child mortality fell 8 percent in the areas that privatized their water services.

• Mixed Private-Public Ownership Companies “Empresa Mixta" (2011)  This review of the empresa mixta model in Latin America was undertaken to better understand its structure, applicability and strength in mitigating risks in the water and sanitation sector. 

• Investing in Water Infrastructure: Capital, Operations and Maintenance (2012) This paper outlines the major challenges when financing global water infrastructure. World Bank Group