institutional aspects of water supply and sanitation in asia

Institutional Aspects of Water Supply and Sanitation in Asia

AKBAR ALI KHAN 25 Bijoygamar, Dacca 2, Bangladesh

The world has enough water to meet the basic human needs for potable water, so the problem of lack of access to safe drinking water is not technical but institutional. The various institutional shortcomings that limit the ability of the

developing countries of Asia to supplying potable water and adequate sanitation are reviewed, and some recommendations for alleviating the institutional difficulties are explored.

1 . INTRODUCTION ity of them are scattered in rural areas. Seventy- two per cent of the world’s rural population li;e in Asia. The major constraints to provision of safe drinking water and sanitation may be dis- cussed under three headings:

Lack of access to safe water and sanitation for the overwhelming majority of the poor throughout the world poses, in the words of the 1977 United Nations Water Conference, “a fundamental challenge facing all mankind.”’ Ironically, the problem is not technical; even with the existing technology, the world has enough water to meet basic human needs for potable water. What is lacking is the institutional and legal mechanism that can

constraints arising out of organization structures and regulations constraints relating to managerial practices constraints arising out of lack of legal regulations

2.1 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES A N D REGULATIONS

mobilize adequate resources to install, operate, and maintain safe water supply and sanitation systems especially for the rural poor of Asia.

Despite its urgency, appropriate organizational structure for providing safe water and sanitation

2. CONSTRAINTS TO DEVELOPMENT OF services has not yet evolved in most of the developing countries. At national levels, there is a deluge of pious wishes for the goals of Interna-

DRINKING WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SYSTEMS

tional Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and a plethora of understaffed and inef- Asia today contains an unprecedented concentra-

tion of extreme poverty. More than two-thirds of fective organizations dealing with drinking water the world’s extreme poor live in that region.2 The and sanitation, but at grass-roots levels, the magnitude of Asia’s drinking water and sanitation institutions are either rudimentary or non- problem is, therefore, colossal. According to the existent, estinlates of the WHO, at least two-thirds of those without adequate water supplies live in South and South-East Asia.3 The problems of providing jurisdictions water and sanitation to Asia’s poor are com- pounded by the fact that the overwhelming major-

Dr Khan is a member of the Directing Staff of the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre.

Natural Resources Forum @ United Nations, New York, 1988

2.1.1

Three factors contribute to proliferation of organizations with overlapping jurisdictions in this sec-

Proliferation of entities with overlapping

45

46 AKBAR ALI KHAN NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1, 1988

tor. First, because of the importance of safe water and sanitation, all levels of government (national, state, and local) are anxious to meet the basic needs in this sector. Secondly, within the national and state governments a number of ministries and departments (e.g. Health, Public Works, Local Government, Rural Development, Urban Development) are directly concerned with the provision of water supply and sanitation facilities. Thirdly, the design of water supply and sanitation projects varies according to size and standards of service. As a result, different types of organizations are needed for running water and sewerage systems in different areas of a country.

The recent institutional changes in Asian countries, especially in India and Malaysia, underscore the importance of combining urban and rural water supply systems under one semi- autonomous water board. As Saunders and War- ford point out, such a board could: “(a) provide a more stable source of revenue to subsidize rural operation and maintenance expenses, (b) assure a greater availability of experienced engineers to supervise and provide technical assistance in operation and maintenance.”‘ Such technocratic organizations, however, may undercut the autonomy of local governments and municipal organizations. There is thus a trade-off in the water and sanitation sectors between operational efficiency and public accountability.

2.1.2 Lack of standards for planning and evaluation of programmes and projects

From the technological point of view, there is a wide choice of water supply and sanitation techniques, and there is a trade-off between economic cost and the level of safety of drinking water. According to estimates of the World Bank, construction costs for water distribution systems can range from US$lO per person for standpipe service to over US$lOO per person for service through house connection (in 1980 prices).’ The cost in individual house connections will be much higher in small and isolated communities. On the other hand, the longer the distance to the distribution point, the greater the probability of water contamination. The installation of house connections leads to an increase in the consumption of water. This apparently beneficial act may in turn create a new health hazard unless there is a drainage system for the disposal of waste water.

The range of sanitation cost is wider than that of water supply. The per person cost of a water- borne sewerage system is 20 times higher than that for a dry on-site system. It is therefore very difficult to lay down uniform cost standards for sanitation in a country.

Following Feachem et al . , water supply schemes in developing countries may be divided into economic schemes and humanitarian schemes. The main criteria for economic schemes are the willingness and the ability of the beneficiaries to bear the cost of capital, operation, and maintenance of such projects. The economic issue is not confined to mobilization of resources alone. As Saunders and Warford suggest, “there is some evidence that villages tend to value their water systems more highly, make better use of the systems and operate and maintain them more efficiently when they have provided resources (labour or money) to help cover construction costs and are paying user fees which at least cover operation and maintenance costs”.’

However, the system of local contribution for water supply and sanitation has some serious weaknesses in the Least Developed Countries. The subsidized water supply and sanitation facilities under this system are most often mono- polized by the rural elites and the rich. As the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector study in Bangladesh reports, tubewell allocation practices favour the richer and more influential villagers (approximately 5 1 0 % of the rural population) and thereby reinforce the control of the rural-rich in water supply. *

The main criteria for schemes provided for humanitarian reasons are the distance, reliability, and quality of existing supplies. The more adverse these characteristics are, the higher the priority. This approach is followed in India, where 231 000 villages were identified as problem villages. According to official estimates, 192 000 problem villages have already been supplied with water and the balance will be covered during the Seventh Five-Year Plan. The policy is to supply at least one source of safe water in each problem village.

2.1.3

The “urban bias” that afflicts the economic life of most of the developing countries is also evident in

Concentration of services in relatively profitable and favoured areas

NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1, 1988 WATER SUPPLY IN ASIA 47

TABLE I Access to community water supply services in selected Asian countries 1980-81 (percentage

population served)

Percentage with water suppfy services

Selected country Urban Rural Total

China 50.0 40.0 42.2 Iraq 97.0 22.0 70.0 India 77.8 31.0 41.3 Malaysia 89.0 42.9 58.7 Bangladesh 46.2 34.0 36.2

Note: The definition of safe water varies from country to country, and an inter-country comparison on the basis of above data may not be valid. Source 1. China: Dean T. Jamison et al., China - the Health Sec-

tor (Washington: World Bank, 1984) (mimeo) p. 81 2. Iraq: Economic and Social Council for Western Asia,

Development Guidelines for the Economic Use of Water in the ESCWA Region (Report No. E/ESCWA/NR 85/19, 1986, p. 110

3 . India: Government of India, Seventh Five-Year Plan p. 301.

4. Malaysia: Government of Malaysia, Fifrh Malaysian Plan, p. 471

5. Bangladesh: Government of Bangladesh, Master Plan Organization, National Water Plan, Vol. 1 . Data for urban areas corrected to include population covered by hand tubewell

water supply and sanitation. In all the five Asian countries selected for this study, the percentage of urban population covered by public water supply and sanitation system is higher than that of the rural areas (see Table I).

The differential between urban and rural areas in respect of water supply seems to be lowest in

China. The actual urban-rural gap in provision of safe drinking water may be lower than is sug- gested by Table I because of the traditional Chin- ese habit of drinking boiled water.9 The urban-rural gap in respect of water supply has been partly narrowed in Malaysia in recent years. According to official statistics the percentage of rural population covered by community water supply in Malaysia has increased from 42.9% in 1980 to 57.6% in 1985. The urban-rural gap in water supply seems to be very high in Iraq and India, where safe water is not available in arid and desert areas. The problems are very acute in India, which contains a rural population of more than 560 million.

The problem is not confined to rural areas. Smaller towns in India have also been neglected in respect of water supply. As Table I1 indicates, the smaller the town in India, the smaller is the proportion of the population served by a community water supply. In towns with population below 5000 only 40.1% of the population is supplied water by the Government, whereas 94.7% of the population is supplied water by the Gov- ernment in cities with population of over 100 000.

The urban-rural differential in respect of effective sanitation seems to be much higher. In 1981, only 0.5% of the rural population in India was covered by public sanitation projects, whereas 27% of the urban population were using sanitation facilities provided by the Government. The percentage of rural population served by sanitation projects was expected to change marginally from 0.5% in 1980 to 0.95% in 1985.'" In Bang- ladesh the present coverage of the rural population under government programmes is less than

TABLE I1 Urban-water supply coverage in India, 1980

Towns with water supply Population size Total no. of Percentage of urban class of towns towns No. Percentage population served

Over 100 000 151 149 98.6 50 000 to 99 999 219 206 94.1 20 000 to 49 999 652 542 83.0 10000 to 19999 987 649 65.7 5000 to 9999 820 423 51.6

Below 5 000 290 123 42.4

94.7 84.4 76.4 60.7 51.2 40.1

Source: Govt. of India, Sixth Five Year Plan, 1980-85, Table 23.6


3%, whereas the urban sanitation coverage was 32% in 1985.”

2.1.4 Inadequate organization leading to overemphasis on f i e d and overhead costs to the detriment of service-related investments

The water supply and sanitation agencies in developing countries tend to overemphasize the means rather than the end. Four factors contribute to this situation. First, the Five-Year Plans prepared by the national governments set targets for new water supply and sanitation systems but do not usually earmark funds for the rehabilitation of the old ones. For example, until the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the Central Government in India did not earmark any funds for the operation and maintenance of rural water supply projects. This strategy is politically convenient in many countries. As Ian Burton points out, “The construction of a new water supply is a glamorous and politically desirable activity. It enables politi- cians and leaders at local and/or national levels to promise a new water supply, to provide a new water supply and then to be seen cutting the ribbon or turning on the first tap on Opening Day. It is an activity which has glamour, visibility and immediate political benefit.”’? Secondly, this emphasis on the hardware of water supply and sanitation projects to the utter neglect of software which involves the actual delivery and utilization of water by the beneficiaries is reinforced in the developing countries by the donors’ preference for latest technology and techniques. Thirdly, there is no public health education unit in most of the water supply and sanitation agencies in the developing countries. These organizations very often tend to be the ivory towers of technocrats. Finally, the specialized water supply and sanitation agencies are affected by those well-known maladies of public sector organizations in developing countries - overstaffing, financial mismanagement and so on.

2.1.5

The beneficiaries of most of the water supply and sanitation projects are often alienated from the system. Apart from the philosophical argument that planning is for people and it is a personal basic democratic right to be involved in one’s own

Limitation on community and private sector participation

development, there are at least two specific com- pulsions for encouraging community participation in water and sanitation projects. First, in much of rural Asia, water use and excreta disposal involve a complex web of social obligations, cultural practices, family traditions, and religious beliefs. Water supply and sanitation projects are unlikely to be successful unless they take these factors into account. Secondly, rural water supply and sanitation systems are very often scattered in inaccess- ible areas. Their operation and maintenance cannot be ensured by agencies from above without the spontaneous participation of local beneficiaries.

2.1.6 Community water supply and sanitation is an exclusive preserve of the government in developing countries

The monopoly of the public sector has recently been questioned for several reasons. First, the public sector tends to be inefficient: water rates are not properly billed and collected. In Bangla- desh, there are widespread allegations of misap- propriation of spare parts for handpumps by government-appointed tubewell mechanics. The spare parts supplied free by the Government are sold in the market, and beneficiaries seldom receive them free of charge.” Secondly, the success of the private sector in efficiently operating tubewells for irrigation in different parts of South AsiaI4 suggests that the private sector may be more effective than the public sector in running water supply and sanitation projects. In some cases the cooperatives have also shown promise in running water supply systems efficiently. In Korea rice cooperatives at harvest time withhold a percentage of the harvest to operate and maintain the water supply for its members. In Bangladesh, a multipurpose cooperative society (the Deedar Cooperative Society in Comilla) provides drinking water from the deep tubewells that are also used for irrigation purposes.

2.2 MANAGERIAL PRACTICES

2.2.1 Inadequate operation, maintenance and monitoring of intakes, treatment facilities and delivery systems for drinking water

The drive to provide universal access to safe water has turned out to be a Sisyphean task; one step

NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1 , 1988

forward is followed by a step backward. As a result, the absolute number of people unserved roughly remains the same.’6 One of the reasons for the agonizingly slow expansion of water supply and sanitation facilities is the frequent failure of already installed services. For example, the performance of handpump water supply programmes is very disappointing. The failure rate of handpumps varies between 30 and 70% within two years after pump installation. Once the supply of safe water is interrupted, the villagers start using water from unsafe and polluted sources.

According to a survey undertaken by the National Environment Engineering Research Institute in India, at least 30% of water supply facilities installed in the rural areas are inopera- tive. As the Indian Planning Commission rightly observes: “While impressive results have been achieved in providing water supply facilities in the rural areas in the Sixth Plan, the maintenance of these facilities, mostly handpumps, has been badly neglected, partly because of a lack of adequate funds for maintenance and partly because of a lack of suitable machinery for their maintenance. It has been realized that the assets created for provision of water supply in the rural areas at huge cost cannot be allowed to go waste or even become partially defunct.””

The problems of 0 & M of water supply and sanitation systems were recently reviewed by the Bangladesh Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Study. The main findings of this study may be summarized as follows:Ix

WATER SUP€

( a ) The level of leakage and wastage is very high in urban water supply. In Khulna, 78% of the water pumped through the urban water supply system is wasted. This figure varied between 54 and 64% in another town. These losses may be attributed to insufficient refill of the trenches on top of the pipes, leading to breakage; overflowing tanks, leaking taps, defective plumbing in the houses etc.

( b ) Out of 269 shallow and deep tubewells sur- veyed, 80 (about 30%) were found to be out of order while an equal number of wells (about 30%) have a yield that has consider- ably decreased since installation. Only 40% of the wells were found to be in proper order. The main reasons for the poor condition of

’LY IN ASIA 49

the wells was inadequate well construction and lack of proper maintenance.

(c) In Bangladesh, about 20% of all handpumps do not function. The percentage of unsafe handpumps is much higher. Almost half of the pumps have no or inadequate platforms, which results in unhygienic and unsafe conditions around the pumps and discourages water use. The malfunctioning of handpumps may be attributed to poor installation, bad maintenance, and choking-up due to lower- ing of the water table.

The problems of operation and maintenance are not confined to water supply alone; they also occur in disposal of wastes. Poverty and cultural practices contribute to the lack of maintenance of privies. This has a negative effect on the environment, because a poorly maintained privy may be worse than none at all.

2.2.2

In most Asian countries, there is an economic trade-off between new investments and rehabilitation of the existing projects in the water and sanitation sector. Economically, it is more profitable to invest in the repair of existing projects for two reasons. First, the sunk costs of existing projects are excluded from economic analysis, so the economic rate of return tends to be very high in rehabilitated projects. I y Secondly, an interruption in the supply of water creates a credibility gap. Under these circumstances the consumers prefer to stick to traditional sources rather than to safe sources of water which may be unreliable. Unfortunately the proposals for rehabilitation of projects are very often ignored because the management of the information system of most of the water supply agencies is so weak that governments do not have adequate information about the requirements of rehabilitation of existing projects, and new projects are politically more visible than the repair of old projects.

2.2.3

Ineffective evaluation of the alternative means to satisfy service needs or targets

Lack of analytical tools for investment evaluation and accounting of costs and benefit including non-monetary measures

The standard tools of cost-benefit analysis are inappropriate for projects in the water and sanita-


tion sector. The quantification of the benefits of such projects is difficult because the benefits are not direct and hence cannot always be measured. Clearly water supply and sanitation projects increase labour productivity through an improvement in health and a decrease in disabling diseases and epidemics, but there are two problems in measuring these benefits. First, few, if any, of the communicable diseases are transmitted by water alone. They may also be caused by con- taminated food, milk, and other vectors such as insects. Secondly, the findings of studies on the relationship between water supply and improve- ments in health are often ambiguous. For example, one study in Uttar Pradesh in India suggests that improved water supply brings about an enhancement of overall sanitary status of the community and thus leads to a lessened probability of transmission of infectious diseases.’” How- ever, another study from Bangladesh indicates that the use of tubewell water for drinking is not a sufficient protection against cholera; cholera in rural Bangladesh is not primarily a water-borne disease and the protection afforded by safe water is overwhelmed by the exposure to polluted sur- face water.”

Although the economic benefits of a water supply and sanitation project cannot be satisfactorily measured, it is easy to quantify economic costs of such projects. Brian Grover therefore suggests least-cost solution or cost-effectiveness approach for water and sanitation projects.?’

The investment decisions in water and sanitation sector should not be based solely on a mechanical least-cost analysis. Water and sanitation facilities are basic human needs. The meeting of these needs is one of the basic responsibilities of the state. As the Mar del Plata Conference rightly underscored: “All peoples, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs.”23

2.2.4

Although the recovery of the cost from the beneficiaries of water and sanitation projects is one of the widely accepted and equitable means for mobilization of resources for such projects, as the

Inadequate cost recovery and pricing systems

experience of the the World Bank Shows, relatively few water and sanitation entities, even those serving urban centres exclusively, have been able to earn sufficient revenues to finance a substantial portion of their investments needs. This disappointing record is due principally to inade- quacies in the level and structure of tariffs.” A survey of water charges in rural areas in 84 countries in the 1970s shows that in 73% of the cases, the villagers were required to pay at least a part of the 0 & M cost, whereas in 27% of the cases the water was supplied free. Only 29% of villagers shared part of the capital costs.”

In Bangladesh, the contribution of local population in the operation and maintenance of handpumps in rural areas is very limited. Usually all costs for rural water supply are paid by the state. The percentage of government subsidy in urban water supply is also very high. A study of water supply systems in 42 towns in 1982-84 reached the following conclusions. lh

Water and sanitation rates constitute only 57% of the actual expenditure incurred for operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation systems in urban areas of Bangladesh. Thus the rate of tariff is very low. Only 51% of water and sanitation rates are collected. This implies that the revenue of water and sanitation systems constitutes only 29% of the actual cost for 0 & M.

The determination of tariff structure for water and sanitation services involves a trade-off between efficiency and equity. In most of the Asian countries, the disadvantaged groups cannot pay the economic cost of water. One solution is a discriminatory pricing policy comprising a low, subsidized rate for “lifeline” consumption of water for the poor and higher rates for residential consumption above the minimum and for industrial and commercial use. This appears to be the standard practice in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, China, and Iraq. However, in some of the developing countries, there are groups of ultra poor who cannot even afford to pay for the subsidized water rates for lifeline consumption. This problem is especially acute for slum and pave- ment dwellers in India and Bangladesh who collect water from public standpipes.

NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1 , 1988 WATER SUPPLY IN ASIA 51

In developed countries, the rate of lifeline water consumption is usually set at 3 to 5% of household income (based on the official minimum wage). In some developing countries, the poor and ultra poor families cannot afford to pay rates at this level, so a substantial part of the cost for water and sanitation will have to be subsidized. However, subsidized facilities tend to be misused. As a first step towards resource mobilization, a reduction of misuse of water and sanitation facilities through active community participation should be encouraged.

2.2.5 Need for procedures and incentives aimed at the promotion of public support and cooperation

The introduction of a new water supply system not only provides better and more water but also heralds a new social order.” It may alter the balance of power within the community; it may also increase dependency on the national and regional government and decrease the ability to act independently in relation to other communities. Thus the social implications of water supply and sanitation schemes are no less impor- tant than technical aspects. Unfortunately, most of the water supply and sanitation organizations are dominated by technocrats who seldom under- stand the social interaction involved in these projects. The acceptability as well as the operation and maintenance of water and sanitation projects are crucially contingent on local participation and local capacity.

An analysis of the experience of successful irrigation groups in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia suggests the importance of legal status for the efficient functioning of water user groups. As Frances E. Korten rightly points out: “Local participation can seldom command the respect of their own members if they cannot also command the respect of the agencies of the state . . . and the latter commonly depends on their having a clear and independent mandate. There is a natural dilemma involved. It is unlikely that strong local organizations will flourish in the absence of supportive policy framework that gives them requisite qualification. Yet governments are reluctant to give significant authority to local organizations which have not demonstrated the capacity to use it effectively.”28

The advantages of user participation could be significantly increased if users are involved from the earliest design stages of a project rather than after its completion. Their involvement at the design stage makes it possible to tailor the technical specifications to beneficiary needs. This also gives the users an opportunity to develop their organizational capability well ahead of the completion of the project.

2.2.6 The necessity of involving women and children

The projects are impersonal, but the beneficiaries are not. The effective participation of the beneficiaries in a project therefore cannot be ensured unless the needs and aspirations of gender-specific and age-specific groups are taken into account. Viewed in this perspective women have a greater role than men in water and sanitation projects because “women are the carriers of water and custodians of family hygiene in developing countries”.’y

As the custodians of family hygiene, the support of women is essential for the acceptability of new water source in a community. Experiments for the operation and maintenance of rural water supply projects by women groups have been undertaken by NGOs in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malay~ia .~” In Bangladesh women

‘cooperatives have been used on an experimental basis for water supply projects. The results of these experiments are promising.3’

2.2.7 Inappropriate design of water systems The designs of water and sanitation systems of developed countries are frequently duplicated in developing countries. This leads not only to wastage of resources through overdesign but also to operation and maintenance problems. The design needs to be carefully tailored to suit local conditions.

Three design problems are faced by most Asian countries. First, standard designs are not used in water and sanitation projects. Water and sanitation systems are very often designed on a one- of-a-kind basis so, there is a multiplicity of pipe sizes, materials, pumps and fittings. Standardiza- tion is highly useful for bulk purchase and for ease of maintenance. However, the existing procedure of international competitive bidding followed by donor agencies discourages such standardization.

AKBAR ALI KHAN NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1, 1988 52

Secondly, the technology for water supply is not always simple and understandable to local people. This compounds the problems of operation and maintenance. Thirdly, the design of water and sanitation systems does not pay adequate attention to conservation measures. A common feature of most urban water systems is the excessive amount of water loss, at least half of which may be attributed to physical leaks in the distribution system.

2.3 LEGAL REGULATIONS

2.3.1

The supply of water is limited, but the uses of water are many, so it is therefore essential to create a ranking of priorities among uses and in some cases also a preference among users. Whenever water is in short supply, potable water should get the highest priority. This priority is often challenged by other users.

The allocation of water among competing users is based o n an order of priority, this ranking is not immutable and should be continuously revised to be pertinent to the current situation. This revision is extremely difficult and the dilemma was high- lighted in a recent UN report: “One of the most serious obstacles to promoting efficiency and sav- ings in water use, and especially to the introduction of new measures, is the existence of prior rights that cannot be abolished without severe technological difficulties and considerable economic and social upheaval.

“The quest of efficiency and better utilization of scarce water resources may lead to the cancel- lation of all existing water-use rights in order to begin anew with a system that protects better the public interest. On the other hand, in most legal systems water-use rights are considered to be either property rights or administrative rights entitled to protection. In any case, the use of water very often involves a heavy investment of resources and the sudden abolition of the right of use could cause economic hardship and bring uncertainty into the water economy.””

There are two ways of solving such conflicts: assimilation of pre-existing uses into a new system after a period of grace or abolition of pre-existing uses. The solution wil1 vary from place to place, but the demand for potable water should always be given priority over all other uses.

Inadequate definition of priorities and preferences

2.3.2

The following specific problems are encountered in the enforcement of rules on use and conservation.

Ineffective policing The responsibility of enforcing the rules and regulations lies with the central agencies who do not have adequate man- power for policing.

Bifurcation of prosecution and en forcement responsibility Very often agencies given the responsibility to protect water uses and rights are not given the power to punish defaulters, usually on the ground that leaving the entire decision in the hands of water administration alone may lead to arbitrariness. These problems may be partly resolved by establishing special courts or tribunals which can arrive at a speedy decision.

In most countries the appellate procedure in water right cases is very lengthy, particularly if the cases are tried by ordinary courts.

The violation of water laws is very often dealt with very mildly. However, the enforcement of existing regulations cannot be improved by sanc- tions and penalties. There is scope for education and raising of consciousness of people on water laws and regulations. Often. laws are not known to people at all. Specifically, the following met hods need to be used to promote public participation:

Direct communicating with the people on the need for protecting water sources. Encouraging the victims of violation of water law to articulate their rights. Encouraging the formation of water-users’ associations at grass-roots levels.

2.3.3 Ineffective collection of tariffs and service charges

A major weakness of water supply and sanitation organizations is the ineffective collection of tariffs and service charges. The performance of water supply organizations in South Asia is highly unsatisfactory in this respect. A survey of the medium and small towns in Bangladesh indicates that on an average only 50% of water bills are collected. In the small and medium-sized towns in the State of Karnataka in India the average rate of collection varies between 32 and 38%.

This problem cannot be solved by draconian legal measures alone. Cutting off water supply

Inadequate or cumbersome en forcement of rules on use and conservation

Lengthy appellate procedures

NRF VOL. 12. NO. 1, 1988 WATER SUPPLY IN ASIA 53

TABLE I11 Causes of ineffective collection by tariffs in Dhaka WASA, Bangladesh, as stated by consumers and

employees of WASA

Causes of non- payment according Percentage of respondent payment according Percentage of respondenr to consumers citing the cause to employees citing the cause

Causes of non-

~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~

Irregular billing 88.5 Acute shortage of 71.4 staff for billing and meter reading

Unsatisfactory services 82.5 Non-pavment by Multiplicity of government 57.1 rating principles 27.5 departments

Lack of incentive 51.7 for collection

Lack of transport and other facilities 35.7 for investigations of complexity

Multiplicity of rates 28.5

Source: Q. M. A. H. Saqui, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Dhaka: Local Government Institute, 1977), pp. 122-137.

connections can only punish the defaulters and cannot ensure the financial viability of water supply organizations. The financial tangle in water utilization is a complex web of administrative inefficiency, improper procedures and technical failures. An analysis of the causes of ineffective collection of tariffs in Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) in Bangladesh illus- trates some of the fundamental maladies of the financial administration in such organizations (see Table 111). Both the consumers and employees of WASA stated that irregular billing owing to lack of adequate and trained staff was the major cause of unsatisfactory collection of taxes. Some 82% of consumers said that they did not pay the bills of WASA because they did not receive satisfactory services. This points to the existence of a vicious circle in,water supply and sanitation organizations. The consumers do not pay because they do not get satisfactory service; the water supply and sanitation organizations cannot provide satisfactory services because they do not have adequate funds for operation and maintenance; they are short of funds because the consumers do not pay. Thus the vicious circle is completed. It will have to be broken by either the water supply organization or the consumers.

3. CONCLUSIONS

Having examined some of the institutional aspects of water supply and sanitation in South East Asia, what conclusions can we draw?

Given the resource constraints most developing countries cannot attain the ideal standards of water supply and sanitation in the foreseeable future, so water systems should be planned in such a manner that they can be expanded by stages as economic development takes place, per capita income rises, and the demand for water and sanitation increases. Each country should pre- scribe water quality standards according to individual circumstances rather than trying to attain global standards overnight.

There is urgent need for close coordination of the activities of water supply and sanitation organizations and other related agencies at the national as well as local levels. At the national level, the activities in this sector should be co-ordinated by a high-powered inter-ministerial committee. At the local level, regional authorities should be established by merging independent water supply and sanitation systems in each basin or drainage area. This strategy has proved successful in the United Kingdom. Ideally, water resources should


be planned for an entire basin or watershed, and the conflicts between competing uses should be resolved within the framework of a national water plan.

The gap in the quality of water and sanitation services between urban and rural areas should be removed as early as possible. It is not, however, sufficient to supply water and sanitation services in rural areas. Additional measures are impera- tive to make rural water supply and sanitation projects meaningful.

The organizations for water supply and sanita- tions need to be strengthened by providing adequate autonomy, by encouraging professionalism, and by undertaking intensive training programmes for the staff. The merger of small organizations into larger water boards would be helpful in attracting suitable professionals to this sector. Water and waste disposal should be combined in a single organization because separate institutions charged with sanitation often tend to be finan- cially weak.

The participation of local people in water supply and sanitation projects is essential for effective utilization of services, mobilization of local resources, and maintenance and operation of the existing facilities. To promote public support and cooperation, the following measures may be undertaken.

An institutional mechanism for local participation in water and sanitation projects should be established. The users should be involved from the earliest design stages rather than after the completion. NGOs and cooperatives should be mobilized to enlist participation of local people. Health campaigns with the assistance of grass-roots organizations should be repeated at regular intervals.

3.1 BASIC MANAGERIAL REQUIREMENTS

The Abidjan Statement (1986) of African countries rightly emphasized that “maintenance is the key to long-term success”. The first precondition for successful operation and a maintenance of a water supply and sanitation system is a regular monitoring system of the existing facilities. The following steps should be taken for the efficient

operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation systems:

(1 ) Institutional structures for regular maintenance should be established. The three-tier maintenance system in some areas of India has proved to be useful. This system consists of caretakers at the village level, mobile maintenance teams working out of district centres, and a regional support centre providing technical assistance, training, and other backup services.

(2) Standardization of equipment and the use of locally manufactured materials will ensure the easy availability of spare parts for operation and maintenance.

(3) Adequate resources for operation and maintenance should be provided. Ultimately the responsibility for operation and maintenance will have to be borne by the local users. Experience in several countries shows that maintenance is not possible unless safe water has been made available and its advantages demonstrated to the public.

(4) Operation, maintenance, and management of water supply and sanitation facilities should be carried out at the lowest possible organizational level. This implies that adequate authority and resources should be delegated to this level for effective operation and maintenance.

Given the magnitude of the problem of providing universal access to safe water and sanitation and the resource constraint of developing countries, first priority should be given to efficient utilization of existing facilities rather than on new investments.

The vicious circle of poor service because of inadequate cost recovery and poor collection of revenue because of poor service must be broken. The following measures should also be undertaken to facilitate cost recovery:

Financial and accounting systems in water and sanitation organizations should be reorganized on commercial lines. Billing and collection procedures should be improved. Large losses through water not accounted for

NRF VOL. 12, NO. 1, 1988 WATER SUPPLY IN ASIA 5 5

should be reduced by severing unauthorized connections. User organizations, cooperatives, NGOs, and caretakers on a commercial basis should be mobilized to collect at least token charges from the ultra-poor who use public standpipes, and the proceeds should be used for protection and maintenance of these standpipes.

The pricing of water below its true cost not only leads to financial pressures on the public exche- quer but is also tantamount to creating a shortage of water in the future. Therefore excessive government interference in the setting of tariffs should be discouraged; water supply and sanita-

tion organizations should be authorized to review these benefits periodically on a commercial basis and discriminatory pricing policy should be intro- duced so that lifeline consumption of water may be cross-subsidized by higher tariffs on large and affluent users.

Finally water supply and sanitation projects should not be the exclusive preserve of the public sector agencies. The potentialities of the uffer- mage (i.e. operating concession) management system through the private sector for operating and maintaining water supply and sanitation systems in urban areas should be explored to reduce the financial losses of public sector agencies.

REFERENCES

1. United Nations. 1977. Report of the United Nations Water Conference (Mar del Plata, 14-25 March

2. World Bank. 1980. World Development Report. Washington DC, p. 35. 3. Quoted in W. C. Baum and S. M. Tolbert. 1985. Investing in Development. New York, Oxford

4. Saunders. R. J. and Warford. J. J. 1976. Village Water Supply: Economics and Policy in Developing

5 . Baum, W. C. and Tolbert, S. M. 1985. Op. cit. p. 326. 6. McGarry, F. R. M. and Mara, D. 1977. Water Wastes and Health in Hot Climates. London, Wiley. 7. Saunders, R. J. and Warford, J. J. op czt. p. 199. 8. Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives;

9. Perkins, D. and Yusuf, S . 1984. Rural Development in China, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University

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University Press, p. 305.

World. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 200.

Sector Study Water Supply and Sanitation, vol. I1 (mimeo).

Press, p. 150. 10. Government of India. Seventh Five Year Plan, p. 30. 11. Government of Bangladesh, Master Plan Organization, National Water Plan (mimeo) vol. I, pp. 6-10. 12. Burton, I. 1979. Policy Directions for Rural Water Supply in Developing Countries, Washington,

13. Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, op.

14. World Bank. 1983. Public and Private Tubewell Performance: Emerging Issues and Options (Working

15. Khan, A. A. 1986. Decentralization for Rural Development in Bangladesh, Kuala Lumpur: Asia Pacific

16. Baum, W. C. and Tolbert, S . M. Op. cit., p. 309. 17. Government of India, op. cit., vol. 11, pp. 36-37. 18. Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, op.

19. Price Gittinger, J. 1984. Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 55.

20. Srivastava, R. N., Verma, B. L. and Saran, M. 1982. The study on the health benefits of water supply in a rural area of Uttar Pradesh, Survey Report (mimeo). Jhansi: Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, MLB Medical College, 1982.

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21. Briscoe, J. 1978. The role of water supply in improving health in poor countries. Amer. I . Clin. Nutr.


22. Grover, B. 1983. Water Supply and Sanitation Project Preparation Handbook. Washington DC. World

23. United Nations. 1977. Op. cit., p. 66. 24. Baum, W. C. and Tolbert. S. M. Op. cit., p. 311. 25. World Bank, Village Water Supply, p. 43. 26. Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, op.

27. ESCAP Guidelines for Rural Centre Planning 1979. New York: United Nations, p. 135. 28. Korten. F. E. The Policy Framework for Community Management. In: Community Management: Asian

Experiences and Perspectives, ed. David C. Korten, West Hartford: Kumarian Press (forthcoming). 29. IRDC. 1985. Women’s issues in Water and Sanitation: Attempts to redress an age-old challenge,

Ottawa: IRDC. p. 1 . 30. IDRC. 1985. Op. cit. 31. Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Local Government, op. cit. 32. United Nations. 1980. Eficiency and Distributional Equity in the Use and treatment of Water:

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institutional aspects of water supply and sanitation in asia

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