Institutional development newsletter 4

March 1995

The objectives of the network are to promote the sharing of ideas, experience and research between professionals in different countries interested in the institutional development of infrastructure utilities, particularly in water and sanitation and waste engineering.

Special greetings to those who responded to the 'No News is No News' cries for help, yes you have 'redeemed' yourselves in the words of one helpful contributor. Hence we are able to come out with the next edition after seven months rather than the proceeding 12 month gap. I have responded to the wealth of material by making this edition overly long. I have hopes of settling into a six monthly routine though a lot will depend upon the availability of material. Some have commented that they have not had a personal letter - simply a matter of too much work for an unfunded task. I will try and respond through this medium for a while longer.

Various people asked for more details on the recommended 'Water Utilities Data Book - Asian and Pacific Region' published by Asian Development Bank, November 1993. The address to write to is Infrastructure Department, Asian Development Bank, PO Box 789, 0980 Manila, Philippines. ISBN 971 561 042 0.

Also recommended for those who do not regularly see it is the 1994 World Development Report which discusses the needs for infrastructure provision and focuses particularly on 'Commercialisation' as the way forward rather than any particular version of privatisation. World Development Report 1994, World Bank.

In the last issue a report was envisaged from the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council sponsored Working Group on 'Institutional Management Options, including Water Demand Management and Conservation' which was meeting in June 1994. No report has been forthcoming though they have suggested that the ID Network supply them with 'short and snappy' case studies. Please contact Piet Klop if you want to help.

Network sharing
Dismas Kalimwenjuma from Tanzania reports that they have just formed a water company, 'Songwe Water Company Ltd.' and are currently working with the Mbeya Municipal Water Authorities to find an economical tariff for their water.

Palmer Development Group, a 'small development/engineering' consultancy based in Cape Town South Africa is engaged primarily in research into how services provision in South Africa can be improved and are committed to providing management support for the carrying out of service improvements. Much of their research has been undertaken for the Water Research Commission, (Attention Mr Charles Chapman, PO Box 824, Pretoria 0001, SOUTH AFRICA) from whom copies of the following reports are available quoting WRC Report Number 571.

Report 6: Summary Report. (Project overview) Meeting the need for water and sanitation services: Getting it right in the transition. This is the main project output containing a set of policy principles and proposals.

Working Paper 11. Urban Water tariff policy: some ideas to inform the current debate.

It is not an overstatement to assert that the success or failure of a national water programme which aims to provide all urban residents with an adequate water supply, will stand or fall on the tariff policy adopted. As part of a Water Research Commission funded project undertaking a review of the financial and institutional arrangements in the urban water and sanitation sectors, some work on tariff policy was undertaken. This paper, drawing on the project output, puts forward a suggested framework for the development of national and local tariff policies.

The paper proposes key principles upon which tariff policy should be based. These include, among others, affordability, fairness, sustainability, efficient resource allocation, transparency and accountability. It is argued that there should not be a national or regional tariff for water, but a uniform residential tariff structure within a unitary metropolitan or urban area is proposed.

It is suggested that the tariff policy principles are best achieved for residential consumers through the application of a "life-line" tariff within a progressive stepped tariff structure. This will allow for cross-subsidisation between large (usually wealthy) and small (usually poorer) consumers, whilst realising affordability and equity objectives.

Tariff policy for industry, commerce and institutions is also proposed in the paper, and issues pertaining to the implementation of a new tariff policy are raised.

Working Paper 13: Institutional Restructuring in the Urban Water and Sanitation Sector: A review of the current debate.

Working Paper 16: The management of water and sanitation in Brazil: Some lessons for South Africa.

(More information from the Palmer Group available in next edition.)

South African - current water institutions:

• national: A government "water" department with overall responsibility and custodianship of the water sector.
  
• sub-regional: "Water boards" operating at the catchment or sub-catchment level responsible for bulk water resource development and supply within their areas. The boards are primarily orientated towards providing for the urban and mining sectors, and there is incomplete geographic coverage with many densely populated rural areas falling outside of water board boundaries.
  
• local: Local authority (council) responsibility of retail of water, wastewater collections and treatment.
  

Although there is a great deal of expertise and capacity in the water sector, both of these resources are highly unequally distributed between the so-called first world" and third world sectors of the economy.

The primary institutional challenges facing the water sector are:

• the amalgamation of racially based local authorities into unified city / town councils and administrations, the creation of efficient water agencies within local government which will cater for all peoples needs within the local authority area, and the scaling up service delivery to previously unserved (or partially served) urban areas, with the necessary training and institutional development requirements. Developing appropriate institutional arrangements for rural water supply, with an emphasis on training and capacity enhancement at the local level. Creating "second tier" (between national and local level) water resource management agencies with contiguous boundaries (full geographic coverage across South Africa).
  
• The Palmer Group are about to become involved in a research project titled "Pricing water as an economic resource - implications for South Africa". This is a three year project, a brief description of which is given below:
  
• an assessment of the implications of pricing water as an economic resource in South African economy with specific reference to economic development and the adequacy and affordability of water supplies to low-income urban communities; and the development of an appropriate pricing policy and methodology to minimise the conflicts between the efficient allocation of resources and equity / fairness, taking into account South Africa's social and economic development needs.
  

In South Africa, urban water pricing is based on historical average costs and water for agricultural purposes is, in most cases, highly subsidised. South Africa is a water scarce country (average annual rainfall is 500 mm) and faces high marginal costs for developing additional sources of supply. For example, the marginal cost of raw water supply in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging metropolitan complex, housing about 7 million people and contributing 60% of South Africa's GDP, is of the order of five times the current average historical cost. Price signals are thus significantly distorted and are, arguably, leading to the inefficient allocation of the scarce water resource.

Internationally, increasing attention is beginning to be paid to economic principles in the pricing of water. This debate is relatively recent in South Africa and the implications for policy and implementation are yet to be explored.

The primary research objectives are:

• review current international trends in water pricing theory and practice, with specific reference to the treatment of water as an economic resource;
• propose pricing policy principles and goals for South Africa on the basis of the above review and the treatment of water as an economic resource;
• develop a pricing methodology to maximise the attainment of the proposed pricing policy principles and goals;
• collate information necessary for assessing the efficacy of the proposed pricing methodology through a case study approach; and
• assess the efficacy of the proposed pricing policy and methodology, with specific reference to:
  

1. the impact on the short- and long-term demand for water in the residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. the impact on the allocation of resources within the water sector (between water supply to agriculture, urban (domestic) and other sectors) and between economic sectors. the impact on economic development in South Africa. the impact on the provision and affordability of water to poor urban communities.
   

There are a number of requests relating to the research project outlined above:

Any available information / literature references on the price elasticities of demand for water? Palmer Group would like to correspond with people involved in similar research in other places. What is the possibility of setting up an e-mail based "gopher" or "user group" on "Pricing water as an economic resource", or perhaps more broadly, "managing water as a economic resource"?

Thomas M Matiasi from the Department of Water Resources, Kenya Water Institute P.O BOX 60013, NAIROBI reports on Community Participation in Sanitation Services in Kenya.

Of late sanitation services in Urban Centres in Kenya have been deteriorating due to the poor maintenance and lack of some infrastructure within the Urban centres. In addition to gaseous and liquid wastes released into the environment, humanity piles up mountains of solid refuse.

An area which has proved to be a problem is the management of solid waste in residential areas in Kenya. Garbage has been piling up in such high rate that it has been interfering with the roads in the residential areas. People have been dumping the garbage on the residential roads in such away that they have become a nuisance. As a result of the poor environmental impacts due to the accumulation of the garbage, members of the communities in some estates have started in participating in the sanitary management of the solid waste in their respective estates.

Despite the people paying service charge to the local councils and municipalities, there has been no improvement of sanitation facilities in Kenyan Urban centres . The service charge is paid by everybody working and is paid in proportion to an individual's salary. Due to the poor usage of the money collected many sanitation infrastructures are no better than they used to be before the introduction of the service charge. The money paid was introduced so as to help in the improvement of the sanitation facilities. To ones surprise even the service charge is paid by some people who are working although they don't even stay in Urban centres.

Bukani is an estate which is in the outskirts of Nairobi City. In the estate there are 83 units of houses each with an average number of six people. This includes adult and children.

The members of the Community in this estate have started participating in solid waste management. Before the people in the estate used to have problems because of accumulation of garbage near the main gate of the estate. There is a committee which is in charge of the collection of the garbage and makes sure that everybody pays for the garbage.

There is a private company which is in charge of the collection. Each house unit is provided with two plastic bags per week. The filled bags are collected once per week on Tuesdays. Each house unit pays a tariff of Kshs 180 per rnonth. The filled plastic bags are taken away for dumping and the site for dumping is not near the estate. Normally it is taken and dumped near the slum areas and hence also creating other environmental problems for the slum people. It would be better if sanitary landfill is introduced if there has to be optimal management of the solid waste in Urban centres.

The problems which used to face the people of BUKANI ESTATE were as follows : garbage dumping in unsuitable site (near the main gate of the estate); air pollution due to the rotten garbage which was accelerated by the high temperature; drainage systems used to block hence causing flow resistance which resulted to flooding; vehicles used to smell very badly if they passed through the road near the old dumping site.

As a result of community participation in solid waste management in BUKANI ESTATE the above environmental problems have been very much minimised within a very short period of time. Hence there is need for the formation of Estate Environmental Committee (EEC) whichshould be in charge of the judicious management of the environment in residential areas in Urban centres. It is good to note that "NATURE IS NOT AGAINST THE USE OF THE ENVIRONMENT BUT IT IS AGAINST THE ABUSE OF THE ENVIRONMENT".

If you are member of GARNET please let the other members hear from you how the communities in your Urban centres are managing the various infrastructure utilities particularly in water, sanitation and waste engineering.

David Wright of Applied Research and Project Management Services, UK, suggests that we should try and focus our minds on a particular theme for which we all contribute for the next issue. Topics suggested are the price the poor are willing to pay for water from vendors, or the proportion of household income a family is prepared to invest in water and sanitation (inkind or cash) or should a literacy programme come before a programme of hygiene education, or the appropriate ratio between the numbers of pump minders and the villages for which they are repsonsible. David comments that if such an idea were successful you could use it to start to gather some responsible opinion, if not data!

Tapio Katko of the Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Finland reports on the Seminar Proceedings entitled 'Sound Institutional Strategies for Water Supply and Sanitation Services.' ISBN 951 722 178 9. The Concluding Remarks of the seminar by J. Hukka, T. Satko and P. Pietila report that:

• The presentations and discussions during the seminar raised many interrelated questions and issues on various institutional alternatives for providing water and sanitation services. Before comparing various alternatives we should probably ask, what are the basic prerequisities for efficient management of water and sewage utilities. In this context at least the following issues could be mentioned:
  

1. autonomy of utilities vs. democratic control: It seems to be the general opinion that efficient management requires adequate autonomy of the utility. This need is clearly seen by most of the "conventional" Finnish municipal water and sewage works subject to local political decision-making. Democratic decision-making should concentrate on key policy issues while utilities should be allowed to decide on more practical technical and management issues. On the other hand, especially in the case of privatised water services in England and Wales but also elsewhere, the need for a proper control mechanism is very evident;
   
2. continuity of operations: This includes, e.g., the need for long-term financial and investment strategies. Instead of a few years only, the utilities should plan their activities for, say, a decade. This includes also long-term manpower planning and human resources development;
3. improved quality of services: This requires, for instance, improved reliability of services, improved water quality as well as better effluent control and environmental protection;
   
4. customer-orientation: This issue was not touched on too much in the seminar. However, for instance in North America but also in Western Europe a growing interest for public relations by utilities themselves can be seen. In Scandinavia and Finland such activities will be necessary while improving efficiency and developing sound institutions; and
   
5. adaptability: Whatever type of organisation is preferred or developed, local conditions must be taken into account. At the national level this includes, e.g. institutional history and framework, legislation, government policy and at the local level many constraints due to natural resources, local administration and institutions as well as the utility-specific issues.
   

Generally we can conclude that utilities should be able to find alternative solutions for any problems that may arise.

During the seminar many alternative organisational models, both national and international, were presented. The following major alternatives would seem feasible for Finland:

1. increasing autonomy by improved management practices: Existing water and sewage utilities may improve their management practices e.g. by introducing operational directives and a code of practice that delegate authority. These by-laws can be enforced without any formal Organizational Sound Institutional Strategies for Water Supply and Sanitation Serviceschanges in the utilities;
   
2. increasing organisational autonomy: According to a recent inventory about one half of Finnish cities are considering this approach. This is partly due to the amended Municipal Law effective since the beginning of 1993. This would require especially the introduction of net budgeting and reserve funds; and
   
3. joint-stock company: In Finland, there is no example of such a utility in any large city so far, but several are under planning. In Sweden, some of the largest utilities have taken this action.
   

The major options for inter-municipal areas cooperation include:

Contractual cooperation including such activities as selling and buying of water as well as receiving and transfer of sewage for treatment. Federation of municipalities. Areal joint-stock company: After the changes in Finnish legislation the differences between the latter two have become smaller.

The international examples presented during the seminar are not necessarily adaptable to Finnish conditions as such. However, there seem to be several general principles that could and should be applied. The competition between public and private management of water utilities in the French model is one of them. The seminar avoided using the term "privatization" but rather emphasized the various alternatives for public and private partnership in the sector. The Swedish practice where research and development is directly funded by the utilities is an interesting case to be considered by other countries.

Mihir R Bhatt, Director of the Foundation for Public Interest, Ahmedabad, India describes some of the Foundation's activities.

Pani Panchayat: Based on three years of action research in 60 villages of the Netherlands assisted Regional Water Supply Scheme in Banaskantha, the centrality of women in O&M was recommended. Revival of local and traditional sources of water to augment the scheme and integrated approach to water and work was suggested. Currently a water team of 9 youths from the local villages have formualted village water inventories; activised local water committees; built water harvesting ponds; and is initiating cost recovery. Integrated watershed management: Since past two years, in association with the Government of Gujerat, in this World Bank funded project 43 watershed village profiles are prepared in 4 watersheds of Gujarat. In addition, training material for the staff, villagers and NGO's is prepared with specific emphasis on water as an integrated and integrative resource. Salinity ingress: To combat ever-increasing spread of salinity in coastal and mainland areas efforts are made to create a database of the problems and local solutions; on-going inputs are provided to a consultative body formed by a women's orgnaisation; and efforts are on to identify local NGO's to experiment with the solutions. Advocacy for policy change from technical to employment oriented solution is encouraged. Mahesana: A team of 20 village graduates is formed to survey ways of incorporating community participation in pre-planning exercise of World Bank funded regional water supply scheme to cover 550 villages of 5 talukas of Mahesana District suffering from fluoride increase. Handpumps at Sabarkantha: In 300 villages of four talukas of Sabarkantha O&M of the handpumps has been taken over from GWSSB by local youths on cost-recovery basis under FPI's overall support and monitoring.

(More information in the next edition.)

Martin de Graaf, Principal Consultant in Social and Institutional development with BMB Group, The Netherlands, shares the Euroconsult report on 'Sustainable Water Supply Systems in Small Cities - The lessons from Darfur, Sudan'.

The Executive Summary reports that: This document is a comprehensive report on the activities of the Water Supply Extension Project (WSEP, 1986-1993) and the Institutional Strengthening and Management Development Project (ISMDP, 1989-1993), both of which assisted the National Urban Water Corporation (NUWC) in the towns of Nyala and El Geneina in Darfur State. The Dutch Government provided financial support for all material and technical assistance inputs.

The huge influx of rural people into these two towns during the last decade resulted in an annual growth in population of more than 12%. Both towns already had a piped water system which served the older town centres and some local institutions. NUWC and the towns had not been able to increase the piped-water supply capacity, and more and more people came to rely on water vendors or on their own efforts to get water. During the 1984-1985 drought even more people took refuge in Darfur's urban centres while possibilities for obtaining water were minimal. Even vendors with animal-drawn carts could not supply enough. Water consumers who depended on these vendors had to spend a very large part of their income on water that was of a much lower quality than piped water.

Surveys had indicated that sufficient water was collected and stored in the wadi aquifers every year to continuously supply the population of the two towns. As most of the recent settlers were now staying in semi-permanent structures, these people could only be helped with low-cost water supply systems such as those based on public standpipes.

The Sudanese Government requested the Dutch Government to allocate part of the assistance offered as a response to the western Sudan drought disaster to the extension of urban water supply in Nyala and El Geneina. Building on recommendations from recent studies, it was decided that, using a phased approach, networks of public standpipes (kiosks) were to cover the areas which were entirely deprived of piped water. Extra boreholes were to be drilled and major new pipelines had to connect the sources with the distribution points. As distances in Nyala were considerable, special booster pumps were to be installed in an already existing pump house. Kiosks with taps for collective use would enable NUWC to deliver water of a good quality at low cost close to a large number of homes.

NUWC, through its National Projects Office, was awarded the contract to carry out the actual construction work, and the Dutch consultancy firm, Euroconsult, was engaged for planning, technical advice and logistic support of a more international character. This was to complement the local logistic support tasks assigned to the National Projects Office. Euroconsult was to provide two technical advisers.

A year after the Water Supply Extension Project had started, it became obvious that progress was much less than had been anticipated. The Sudanese Government had to finance the cost of borehole drilling, local staff and labour, and as disbursements to the project were very slow, especially trench digging and pipe laying were much delayed. It was very difficult, and often impossible, to attract enough local labour for the hard trenching work at the obligatory government-set rates. When many technical supervisory staff from NUWC's National Projects Office were required, they were not available, and the Resident Engineer lost much valuable time in Khartoum trying to speed up the liberation of funds.

As WSEP had suffered considerable delays in Nyala as well as in El Geneina during its initial years, the next phase of the project would focus on completion of the activities that had already been started and on rehabilitation of existing installations. This rehabilitation especially involved replacing the weakest elements in the distribution pipeline system, which not only caused serious water losses, but also demanded frequent repairs, particularly during the rainy seasons.

Four years after the start of the project, only two of the four targeted areas in Nyala had been provided with community kiosk systems and the other two were still in dire need. In the third phase a large looped pipeline was to be built to connect the major well-fields with the distribution mains. To balance production with demand, a large (800 m3) overhead storage tank was to be built near Nyala's central pump house. In El Geneina and Adarmata, at the beginning of the third phase, the kiosks were operational, but not all the boreholes were connected by pipelines and powerlines; generator buildings still had to be constructed and the system of distribution mains was far from complete.

By November 1993, almost all the work in Nyala had been completed. By this date, only about 30% of the work in the hai El Geer, the last target area to be provided with kiosks, remained to be finished. The project had been extended after the deadline of December 1992, when the foreign donor did not extend the funding for a technical advisor. In El Geneina the plans had been modified frequently and towards the end, when the project could no longer closely supervise activities, they lacked direction. Unfortunately, not all boreholes are operational as planned and the main distribution system has not been completed.

In 1988, a Dutch mid-term review mission recorded the poor performance of NUWC Nyala in operations and maintenance. The mission concluded that training of personnel, filling of key positions, maintenance and water fee collection rate, all needed much improvement to sustain successful operation of the extensions made under WSEP. It was recommended that a study should be made by the consultant concerning the institutional aspects of NUWC Nyala.

On the basis of this study, a "pilot project" would be carried out in order to develop a methodology which could be applied in other towns in the Sudan. A pilot project would allow some freedom in tariff-setting and introduction of water fees, based on cost recovery. The Dutch Government could give technical assistance with respect to training, organizational development, revenue collection and community participation.

One year after the start of Institutional Strengthening and Management Development Project (ISMDP), a review mission of the Dutch Government suggested that NUWC Nyala should become a Water Supply Company. By strengthening existing functions (such as production, distribution, revenue collection, operations and maintenance), and developing new functions (such as design, planning and construction, consumer relations, staff development and training), the corporation was to become self-supporting. The mission also recommended to accelerate the integration of the technical project (WSEP) and the organizational project (ISMDP).

ISMDP started out to help install user committees with members from the population living near the kiosks, who would look after the operation, the use and hygienic conditions of the newly constructed kiosks. This could move the major load of managing the kiosks from NUWC to the kiosk committees. NUWC appointed a special representative (later even more than one) to interface with the kiosk committees.

ISMDP prepared for NUWC Nyala an "Enterprise Development Plan" which outlined a path towards greater autonomy and operational freedom of NUWC Nyala. This EDP aimed at a situation whereby NUWC Nyala would be self-financing within three or four years. The EDP was officially presented during a one-day conference in Khartoum.

To measure how well an organization is functioning, the project developed the Institutional Capability Index (ICI). This instrument can help to estimate how well a town's water corporation operates and, if applied at certain intervals, it can show the progress that is made in improving operational efficiency.

As communication between the management and the operational sections left much to be desired, monthly management-team meetings were to become a regular feature. However, as was to be expected initially, this formalized communication and feedback channel did not function too well.

As an instrument to guide management decision making, a system of management information sheets (MIS) was instituted, which presents monthly key indicators of engineering works, financial status and staff issues on one sheet of paper. Comparison of the data from month to month will show the effect of the management decisions that have been taken.

The project helped design sets of forms to monitor the flow of water to the kiosks and the revenue that is generated. It was soon learned that daily collection of the kiosk revenues involved too much manpower and now they are collected only weekly.

Surveys held during consultancy missions confirmed that extending the kiosk network is the most cost-effective way to supply a large part of the town population with safe water and also that the consumers are ready to pay the cost of water. Other consultancy missions underlined the need for the introduction of a universally accepted "double-entry commercial accounting" system. An upgrade to this system is essential to derive information for appropriate management decision-making.

As data on household connections had not been kept up-to-date for a long time, ISMDP instituted a survey of all households in Nyala during which block numbers and house numbers were assigned and painted, key characteristics recorded and compared with those of the consumer accounts section.

During the first two years of ISMDP, 24 technicians were trained in four- to six-week courses at the Nyala Technical High School, and a two-week course on "double-entry commercial accounting" was organized in Nyala and was attended by accountants from four towns in Darfur State.

To serve as a guideline to operations and maintenance personnel in the production department, ISMDP organized the production of three standard operations manuals (SOPs). These were written in English as well as in Arabic.

To complement the improved availability of safe water for household purposes in El Geneina, ISMDP gave support to the Irish NGO, Goal, which was involved in activities to promote hygiene education and sanitation.

The major achievements of the first two years of ISMDP were:

increase in revenue collection successful and low-cost operation and management of kiosks increase of public water supply through three new kiosks and one extra tanker filling point improved operation of pumps, pipelines and kiosks.

As the financial position of the two NUWC branch operations had deteriorated since December 1991, it deserved immediate attention. Management became interested in picking up some of the tasks of staff who had been away from their posts and whose tasks nobody had cared to assume. Only this refocused attention enabled NUWC Nyala to keep revenues over current expenditure over the next year and a half.

Early in the project life, it became clear that NUWC tariffs were insufficient to cover any cost other than that of direct water supply. Although ISMDP advised to increase reconnection fees by five times to cover the actual cost to NUWC, after initially allowing this under the pilot project status, NUWC quickly issued directives to bring this charge back to more or less its previous level.

Compared to Zalingei and El Geneina, water tariffs were more than adequate for Nyala, given its rather low cost structure. The real problem was the low collection rate. As the Nyala accounts department was not very effective, ISMDP advised, in addition to introducing some new systems, to improve the leadership and work discipline in this department. Towards the end of the project, this weakness had been addressed. By the summer of 1993, the new accounting system started to be introduced and more financial data became available for management through generation of special reports.

The introduction of a comprehensive "periodic section reporting system" improved the information flow to management and thus the possibility to monitor and intervene effectively.

The cost structure of El Geneina is completely different as all power has to be generated with small diesel generators. Although the arrangement of pumps and generators can be improved, the pumping costs will remain high, because El Geneina's remote location and bad road connections make fuel prices extremely high and supplies irregular and erratic. Differences in staff competence and numbers explain much of El Geneina's higher cost structure. As these costs cannot be met by water fee revenues, it is up to politicians to decide to raise tariffs above national tariffs or to provide special subsidies. If NUWC operations in Darfur State are to become financially self-sufficient, then Nyala as the urban centre that has the lowest cost structure will have to cross-subsidize the NUWC operations in the other towns of Darfur State. However, for this to happen, Nyala will run the risk of having insufficient funds to finance the expansion and improvement of its own services.

A local consultant conducted a work-load and organization study. This study determined how adequately sections were staffed, how well the branch was structured and organized, and how well the organization communicates and has specified responsibilities. As the draft reports of this study did not completely describe the situation, ISMDP itself prepared small reports on the tasks, structure, work-load and staffing situation of each section. The project also designed a complete set of periodic section report forms, which became operational during the last year of the project. The new function of executive office manager was created to ensure proper completion, handing in and filing of these reports and to assist the management with the preparation of agendas and recording of minutes of meetings.

By mid-1993, management started to draw its own conclusions from reporting on the sections which was highly structured by then. A salient example of this "acting on new information" was the conclusion drawn from reporting on the pipeline sections, which revealed that pipeline repairs were often in the same places, and that, 95 % of the time, about 50% of the section's staff were not assigned to any duty. Combination of these two facts made management decide to revive a pipeline rehabilitation action which had started a year before and in which management and staff had lost interest. A rehabilitation programme for valve chamber developed along the same lines.

The maintenance staff is progressively becoming more effective as a result of training, more and better tools and increased interest from management (through better monitoring). In 1992 and 1993, 24 maintenance staff received additional training at Nyala's Technical High School (THS), 18 accountants attended a refresher course in "double-entry commercial accounting", two dozen higher-level staff were trained on a variety of courses at the Management Development Centre (MDC) in Khartoum and two assistant mechanics got a four-month training at a Nyala vocational training centre.

In 1992 and 1993, ISMDP organized the import of duplicators, typewriters, calculators, car parts, garage tools and garage equipment, as well as pipeline fitting tools. These new pipeline tools enabled the pipeline section to properly fit polythene pipe on metal couplings for the first time.

ISMDP continuously and consistently worked with NUWC management, both at State and town levels. It assisted in taking decisions on interpretation of observations and messages from the workforce, and in planning action for both the immediate and the long-term future. Although many decisions were made during these sessions, some have later been abandoned as implementation met with resistance. Unfortunately, the four-headed management team, consisting of one general manager (chief water engineer) and three heads of department, most often only found one or two members present on the job. The chief water engineer, who was officially appointed, was in Nyala only 50% of the time.

Since the start of the projects, the service to the consumers in Nyala has significantly improved. Not only are about 100,000 more people served with piped water, also the regularity of service has reached very high levels. In contrast to earlier years, the water delivery at the end of the rainy season was not noticeably reduced. El Geneina is less fortunate as it receives insufficient fuel for pumping to be undertaken on a regular schedule, and thus each "hai" within the town receives water for only two days per week.

NUWC Nyala has turned from a subsidy-dependent branch into a provider of subsidies to other towns. With the benefits of recent staff changes in the accounts department, this branch's revenue will become ample, not only to cover recurrent expenses, but also to provide for equipment replacement and for payments to the provider of electricity.

A quantitative work-load/staffing analysis in Nyala has revealed that some sections are much overstaffed. Without reorganization, about 65 out of 200 employees could be assigned to duties outside the water corporation in Nyala, without any loss of output. Nyala and other NUWC operations should not hire any new staff without considering whether a vacancy can be filled from inside, which can be done with the help of the completed personnel evaluation forms.

The last section of the document shows that many of the lessons learned during the lifetime of the projects can be applied in othjer towns, even if these do not enjoy the same level of technical and financial assistance.

Professor Henri Coing of LATTS of Universite Paris Val-de-Marne sends a document entitled 'Les services urbains et la privatisation au Venezuela 1989-1993. The Introduction explains that:

L'ambitieux programme de privatisation decide par le Gouvernement de Carlos Andres Perez a partir de 1989 visait l'ensemble des entreprises publiques et prevoyait la vente d'actifs dans l'industrie et les services: les secteurs financier (banques, agro-industriel (usines de sucre, touristique (hotels, le transport maritime (chantiers navals et ports, le transport aerien (la compagnie VIASA, furent les premiers concernes.

Les services publics occupaient aussi une place importante dans le programme. Quelle est leur situation a la fin de 1993, lorsque se termine le mandat du President?

A premiere vue, ce secteur a subi une transformation profonde. Les telecommunications sont majoritairement dans les mains du secteur prive, apres la privatisation de la CANTV, la deregulation des services nouveaux (telephonie cellulaire... ou traditionnels (telephones publics . Le secteur electrique amorce son processus de privatisation (ENELVEN et ENELBAR, deux entreprises moyennes de distribution, sont en cours de vente, ainsi qu'une usine de production thermoelectrique, il existe un projet de restructuration de la branche, separant production, transmission et distribution, et un nouvel Organisme Regulateur a ete mis sur pied. Quant au service d'eau potable et d'assainissement, I'entreprise nationale INOS a disparu, dix entreprises regionales ont ete creees (controlees par un nouveau holding, le processus de privatisation de l'Acueducto Metropolitano de Caracas a demarre, et plusieurs projets de concession de ce service existent dans diverses regions . Le service des dechets urbains, dans les principales villes du pays, est entre les mains d'entreprises privees, par des contrats de prestation de service, et l'on observe une tendance marquee a transformer ces derniers en veritables concessions. Pour le transport urbain, un nouveau cadre institutionnel (avec la creation de FONTUR doit permettre une profonde reorganisation de la branche, ainsi que des relations entre transporteurs et municipalites. En outre, dans tous ces secteurs, le cadre financier et tarifaire a ete profondement transforme, avec pour objectif la recuperation directe des couts.

Le changement est donc passablement profond et rapide. et on peut le resumer par quelques decisions de haut contenu symbolique, comme la privatisation de la CANTV (telephone ou la liquidation de l'INOS (eau, toutes deux entreprises nationales tres representatives de l'ancien modele de services publics.

Cependant, il serait possible de donner de la situation actuelle une vision bien differente: la restructuration du secteur electrique reste h faire, et jusqu'ici tous les efforts ont echoue. Le service de l'eau est encore a 100% public, et l'appel d'offres international pour la concession de Acueducto Metropolitano est reste infructueux, paralysant tout le processus. Dans le service des dechets, le marche ouvert aux entreprises privees depuis le debut des annees 80 ne s'est pas elargi au cours des dernieres annees, et semble stagnant, voire meme en regression. Quant au transport urbain, la relation public-prive a peu evolue, et la politique ambitieuse definie a travers FONTUR reste paralysee.

Ce sont deux manieres opposees de voir la situation actuelle. L'une met l'accent sur un projet de privatisation passablement radical, qui represente une rupture complete avec le modele anterieur de gestion des services urbains de base. L'autre insiste sur le decalage entre l'ambition du projet, et le faible degre de realisation qu'il a connu, ou sur les echecs qu'il a rencontres, jusqu'a mettre en doute que soit survenu un changement de modele. Peut-etre s'agit-il d'une processus contradictoire, qu'il nous faut analyser, moins pour choisir entre ces interpretations opposees, que pour comprendre la dynamique conflictuelle de ces changements, sans que personne puisse predire avec certitude le resultat final. En outre le projet privatisateur entretient d'etroites relations avec le projet decentralisateur; ce sont deux dynamiques qui interferent, parfois se renforcent, parfois se contredisent, avec des resultats encore incertains.

L'analyse que nous allons presenter ne pretend pas realiser une evaluation du programme de privatisation, et moins encore faire un bilan de ses effets et consequences. Il s'agit plutot de savoir jusqu'a quel point le modele traditionnel de gestion des services urbains au Venezuela a ete remplace par un nouveau model, et d'identifier les principales caracteristiques du changement comme processus social et politique. Au-dela des decisions de privatisation, ce qui nous interesse, c'est la redefinition du modele de gestion de ces services, c'est-a-dire de la maniere dont une societe organise leur prise en charge.

New Addresses for 1995:

• Kathy Eales Research Manager EPE Development Research and Planning PO Box 11690 Dorpspruit 3206 SOUTH AFRICA.
  
• Dr K Pushpangadan Associate Fellow Centre for Development Studies Prasanthnagar Road Ulloor, Thiruvananthapuram 695 011 Kerala INDIA.
  
• Piet Odendaal Executive Director Water Research Commission PO Box 824 Pretoria 0001 SOUTH AFRICA.
  
• Roger L Brown Associate Binnie & Partners Grosvenor House 69 London Road Redhill Surrey RH1 1LQ UK.
  
• Piet Klop Science, Technology and Private Sector Division United Nations Development Programme One United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 USA.
  
• Linden Vincent Department of Irrigation and Soil and Water Conservation Wageningen Agricultural University Nieuwe Kanaal II6709 PA Wageningen THE NETHERLANDS.
  
• Douglas R Abbott Abbott and Associates PO Box 147 Chester Maryland 21619 USA.
  
• Chris Sealy APT Design and Development 29 Northwick Business Centre Moreton-in-Marsh Gloucestershire GL56 9Dr Richard Franceys UK.
  
• Hugh Turral Overseas Development Institute Regent's College Inner Circle Regent's Park, London NW1 4NS UK.
  
• H K Murthi Consultant PO Box 47074 c/o UNEP DC/PAC Nairobi KENYA.
  
• MS Prema Room 328-Q PO Box 47074 c/o UNEP DC/PAC Nairobi KENYA.
  
• Andrew Nickson DAG University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham UK.
  
• Professor Henri Coing LATTS Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses Universite Paris Val-de-Marne Central IV, 1 Avenue Montaigne 93167 Noisy-le-Grand FRANCE.
  
• John Rose Kintra 2 Manor Close Lincoln LN2 1R UK.
  
• B R Bhagat S. E. Public Health Circle, Bathinda, Punjab, INDIA.
  
• D K Bhasale PWD 69/1, Mount Road, Sadar Nagpur-440001 INDIA.
  
• Pratul Chandra Baruah S. E., Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, R G Baruah Road, Ganeshguri, Guwahati Pin.781005, Assam INDIA.
  
• Ramakant Dube S.E., PHE, Project Circle, D-22, Charimali, Bhopal, MP INDIA.
  
• M B Haque S.E. (PHE), Nayanpur, Ganeshguri, Japorigag, Guwahati-781005 INDIA.
  
• K Sampathkumar 25, Abiramapuram First Street, Abiramapuram, Madras 18 INDIA.
  
• Clement Lalrema Addl. C.E., PHE, Aizawl-796007, Mizoram INDIA.
  
• P K Mitra 188/24 Prince Anwar Shah Road, Calcutta-700045 INDIA.
  
• Balkumar Rasaily S.E., PHE Department, PO Gangtok-737101, Sikkim INDIA.
  
• S V Shelkikar Chief Engineer (R) Shreya Chambers 4th Floor, 175, D.N. Road, Fort Bombay - 400 001 INDIA.
  
• Udai Vir Singh S.E. Public Health, Bhiwani Water Works, Bhiwani, Haryama INDIA.
  

NETWORK INFORMATION:
The GARNET Steering Committee decided in an interestingly top-down fashion that there should be a new topic network on 'cost recovery and tariff structures'. The Institutional Development network will continue to address these matters as they are seen to be indivisible from the commercial orientation which most would now accept to be a pre-condition for institutional development. If you feel a separate network on this topic is viable at present please say or write direct to the GARNET secretariat.

Email
There is pressure from those who have them to include Email addresses to facilitate communication. I have so far resisted this trend for two reasons, the first being that nobody was communicating by 'snailmail' let alone electronic mail. The second was that it seemed to put at a disadvantage those who have no forseeable hope of access to the Internet. However, this is meant to be an open network so if you have strong feelings either way please let me know on R.W.Franceys@lut.ac.uk or by post!

Updated 03/03/03

Maintained by f.o.odhiambo@lboro.ac.uk and j.fisher1@lboro.ac.uk