Private Sector Delivery of Rural Piped Water Services in Bangladesh : A Review of Experience, 2003-2015
This note explores the Bangladesh experience in implementing the widespread use of a private operator model for building and operating rural piped water schemes. Since the early 1990s, the World Bank has, through a series of development projects, d...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/26399253/private-sector-delivery-rural-piped-water-services-bangladesh-review-experience-2003-2015 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24784 |
| Summary: | This note explores the Bangladesh
experience in implementing the widespread use of a private
operator model for building and operating rural piped water
schemes. Since the early 1990s, the World Bank has, through
a series of development projects, designed, piloted, and
attempted to scale up use of the model as a mechanisms to
address the very real issues of arsenic contamination and
delivery at scale. The latest of these projects is still in
implementation. The experience with these projects to date
has been disappointing, and while a limited number of
schemes are still in operation, the model has not been
replicated in a large number of communities as intended and
has not proved to be particularly sustainable. Over this
same period, the government and other development partners
also have been using alternative methods to deliver the same
kinds of services in rural areas. Some of these efforts
seem to have been modestly successful. However, much of the
evidence about the performance of these other models is
anecdotal and there has been little rigorous analysis to
compare the performance of these different models with the
private sponsor approach. This paper attempts to do this on
the basis of a desk review of existing World Bank
literature, including project documents and research
reports, coupled with interviews with key stakeholders and
World Bank staff. The first section of the paper provides an
overview of the rationale and key issues associated with
efforts to scale up a private operator model in Bangladesh.
The second section reviews government efforts and those of
its other development partners, to use a more traditional
mode of service provision, involving community management.
The third, fourth, and fifth sections review efforts by the
government and the World Bank to design, test, and scale up
a private operator model for service provision. A sixth
section reviews some of the international research that
provides insights into the use of such models in other
countries and sectors. The paper ends with tentative
conclusions about the experience in Bangladesh, lessons
learned, and several options for further analysis. |
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