Tapping the Market

This book examines the challenge of reform of the urban water supply sector in developing countries, based on case studies of state-owned water companies in Ghana, India, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. The growing public private partnership for urban water supply is analyzed, focussing on the concession contract model. The implications for meeting the water needs of the urban poor, for the regulatory role of the state and for state capacity building are also discussed.

ANDREW NICKSON is Reader in Public Management and Latin American Development, School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham, where he directs the Masters in Governance and Development Management programme of the International Development Department (IDD). He has extensive worldwide experience of teaching, research and consultancy on public administration reform, decentralisation, and regulation of privatised public utilities.

RICHARD FRANCEYS is Senior Lecturer in Water and Sanitation Management at Cranfield University and a member of 'WaterVoice Central', the Central Customer Services Committee of OFWAT, the UK water regulator. He has previously spent several years working with an NGO in Sudan.