16 Oct 2008: ISS Today: The Poor Suffer Most From Corruption in the Water Sector

16 October 2008: The Poor Suffer Most from Corruption in the Water Sector

 

In August 2008, during the world water week in Stockholm, Transparency International launched its Global Corruption Report 2008 focusing mainly on corruption in the water sector. The report stresses that corruption, as one of the major crimes committed in the water sector, profoundly hinders secure livelihoods of many people in Africa, leading to increased poverty on the continent. The report pointed out that about eighty percent of all health problems in developing countries, for example in Tanzania, are linked to use of unsafe water and inadequate sanitation, which claim about 1.8 million lives a year.

 

The report raises a number of questions about who are the key players and who are committing corruption in the water sector. To address these questions and others, we take a look at the water supply situation in the City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in the last five years. 

 

Before the turn of the twenty-first century, public institutions used to be the predominant players in water supply and management in Tanzania. This is probably due to conventional perceptions of water being a free public resource. As such water is directly related to public health and therefore need to be protected by government institutions in terms of administration, operation and maintenance. Yet, the ownership and operation of water supply systems by these institutions received much criticism and was blamed for poor water delivery services mainly linked to lack of investment resources and incentives for maintaining efficiency and accountability in water resource use and management.

 

As a result of inefficiency of public institutions in water delivery services, policy makers with advice from international watchdogs such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank thought of involving private institutions and individuals as an alternative to improve water supply services. The assumption behind this approach is that private institutions and individuals have enough capital to cover initial costs for water infrastructure operations and maintenance. It is further argued that private institutions and individuals have more capacity for managing the performance of their personnel, and this will result in retaining skilled employees and hence lead to better performance. This assumption led the government to engage private companies to run water supply services in the country. Thus in 2003, the Tanzanian government through Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Authority (DAWASA) entered into a ten-year contract with City Water Company (CWC) to manage water supply services in the City of Dar es Salaam. CWC was tasked to put up new connections for water supply systems, carry out routine maintenance of the systems and collect water payments from both the past and current customers. On the other hand, DAWASA retained ownership of the water supply systems. The takeover of CWC of the water supply in Dar es Salaam was regarded by many as a way of meeting growing water demand for the growing population of Dar es Salaam. It was expected that more residents of Dar es Salaam would be connected to water supply systems since only less than 10 percent of about five million people living in Dar es Salaam had that important social service. In other words, it was expected that CWC would have that ability to invest in the water supply for the city.

 

However, expectations that the water supply situation would improve and hence relieve the majority of Dar es Salaam residents from spending more time and money on water became an illusion in just less than one and half years of CWC operation. CWC failed to put up new connections and was unable to meet revenue collection targets as stipulated in the contract. CWC demanded the raising of water bills, another burden to those connected to water supply systems with a capacity of providing them with water for at most two days a week due to old and underserviced systems. As water became overpriced, the poor suffered the most because of their inability to pay for extra water.

 

It is therefore unclear how such an inexperienced company won such an important contract. Reports from development partners including the World Bank admitted that CWC had failed in its duty. CWC claimed that its bid was based on flawed information they received from DAWASA and hence the cause for their failure to meet the set targets. This was rejected by the government that opted to terminate the contract in its third year of operation. This decision led to a legal battle that the government won.

 

It was not clear if DAWASA had supplied flawed information to CWC or if the contract may have had some hidden agenda. Yet, this suspicious contract left the majority of Dar es Salaam residents without any future expectation to have sustainable water supply. As the 2008 corruption report pointed out, corruption in the water sector makes water inaccessible and unaffordable putting the lives of many people at risk particularly in the developing countries.  Professor Wangari Maathai, former Kenyan minister and Nobel laureate, in her foreword to the report concludes that corruption gives the powerful the means to work against and around the rules, break them and steal the money intended to get water to the poor.

 

t is under this scenario, that the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005 – 2015 acknowledges that living without reliable and safe water and adequate sanitation undermines, to a great extent, the attainment of sustainable livelihoods particularly for the poor. 

 

In conclusion, to attain secure livelihoods in Tanzania and Africa in general, all people should have access to safe water and adequate sanitation. This however can only be possible if systems to combat crime in the water sector are put in place. Thus, while fighting crimes such as corruption in the water sector is not an easy task, researchers can greatly contribute to the policy formulation process that will assist policy makers to take informed decisions base on research findings.

 

Dr Donald Antony Mwiturubani, Senior Researcher, Environmental Security Programme, ISS Nairobi

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