Poor Water Service Research Articles

Study of the Readiness for Receiving Desalinated Seawater – Gaza City Case Study

The readiness for receiving desalinated water in Gaza city was evaluated, by ensuring the technical, economical and social readiness, and identifying the current obsticles and problems to achieve the greatest possible benefit from Gaza seawater desalination plant. The conditions of existing water networks in Gaza city were assessed through the age of network, the age of flowmeters, determining the locations of asbestos lines, determining the places of breakage and failure, and generating spatially thermal maps. Furthermore, studying the percentage of collection system based on social and economical aspects was carried out to determine the acceptance of defined new tariff as a consequence of improving the water service. The results revealed that 68% of the water networks are aging more than 10 years, as well as 66% of water flowmeters are aging more than 10 years. There is a close relationship between the use of 2” diameter pipes with the occurrence of breaks and failure in the networks. The collection is not exceeding 4% of total bills value, which represents 29% of the number of cutomers. The socio-economic results found that 65% of the customers are not paying the bills due to bad economic and 35% due to poor water service. However, 64% of the customers agreed to raise the tarrif for reciving-desalinated water, and 97% agreed if the tarrif does not exceed 2 shekels per cubic meter. Existing water networks problems should be maintained to ensure optimal use of desalinated water, and public awareness for citizens should be carried out to incrase the level of social responsibility and paying the bills in order to obtain a better service and sustainability.

A panacea gone awry: A review of water privatization policy in the Philippines

AbstractIn 1997, the Philippine government privatized the operations of its publicly owned water service provider for Metro Manila. This was part of the global trend toward privatization of public services that started in the 1980s following a global economic crisis. The aims were to reduce government's role in economic development and in the provision of public services. Two decades later, however, the goals of Philippine water privatization continue to fall short of what it promised to do to the detriment of the consumers, particularly the urban poor. This article argues that the neoliberal development framework of privatization, deregulation, and economic liberalization and the market economy have generally favored corporate interests. The result has produced perennial problems such as the rising price of water and excessive profit taking and the limited and poor water services and sanitation coverage among others.

Critical Factors for the Success of Rural Water Supply Services in Brazil

The universalization of drinking water in rural communities poses a great challenge to developing countries, where rural areas often receive poor water service coverage and limited attention from authorities. This scenario is the current reality in Brazil. The community management model of rural water services has proven to be a noteworthy approach to ensure the continuity of water supply where private and public entities do not operate. However, its sustainability depends on several aspects. The authors of the current paper performed a thorough review of relevant publications in the rural sanitation field of study using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) methodology, which enabled the creation of a list of essential factors capable to ensure the sustainability of Rural Water Supply Services (RWSS). Using the Nominal Group Technique with a selection of participants from a national conference held in Brazil in 2015, specialists hierarchized the factors, demonstrating their perception of the most important aspects necessary in RWSS throughout Brazil. Consequently, the authors noticed the necessity of a strong enabling environment, which recognizes small communities and their local services. Water quality control, post-construction support and the existence of a financial scheme were also pointed out as important aspects to ensure RWSS’s sustainability.

Water Services Sustainability: Institutional Arrangements and Shared Responsibilities

Poor water services in developing countries after national conflict as a result of institutional setups and devastating infrastructures. This study assesses how institutional arrangements have affected the poor water services in Somalia, through thematic analyses. The huge gap in the literature about Somalia highlights the significant need of such research works and the originality of this paper. For this paper, different stakeholders were interviewed from seven zones of the city of Garowe. The results show that public private partnerships (PPP) play a vital role in providing drinking water. The results show that the institutions involved in the water sector in Puntland are not well organized. Roles and responsibilities were unclear, and different governmental institutions criticized each other for deliberately taking over others’ responsibilities, leading to poor and over-priced domestic water quality. Most consumers cannot afford a drinking water supply to their homes, so they are forced to walk long distances and queue for a long time in order to access water. Our analysis shows that it will be difficult for Somalia to achieve Sustainable Development Goal six (SDG 6) (target one) under the current institutional arrangements. Institutional reforms are recommended in the water sector in order to achieve SDG 6 (Target one), and to ensure safe drinking water in Puntland by 2030.

Poor water service quality in developed countries may have a greater impact on lower-income households

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the relationship between perceived service quality and averting behaviours and averting expenditures across prominent water service attributes, using revealed preference survey data from New Zealand water supply customers. It finds that nearly 50% of consumers undertake averting behaviours, investing substantial amounts in improving their water service quality. Unexpectedly, lower-income households were more likely to undertake averting behaviours for the same perceived service quality, and spent more in their averting behaviours. This suggests that the burden of low-quality service is greater on lower-income households, not only relative to income but in absolute terms.

Poor Water Service Delivery: An Exposition of the Plight of the Phiri Community in Soweto, South Africa

In South Africa, a lot of people are unable to access clean water despite the fact that the Constitution provides that everyone is entitled to have access to adequate clean water. Although, general...

The experience of private investment in the South African water sector: The Mbombela Concession

South Africa is a water-stressed country that over a protracted period has suffered from poor water service delivery. The major problems are inefficient operations, lack of capacity in spending allocated budgets, unclear management structures, and a long-term decline in capital expenditure. Economists have long argued that private investment will bring good fiscal control and efficient structures and will improve service delivery. However, there may be trade-offs between this improved economic efficiency and the necessity to pursue more egalitarian social outcomes. The purpose of this research is to explore the experience of private-sector investment on operational efficiencies and social objectives in the South African water sector in the Mbombela Concession. The study concludes that, in this case, private investment has enhanced service delivery by improving efficiency, technical skills and the capacity to spend allocated budgets without any significant negative impacts on equitable water distribution.

Coping with poor water services and the demand for change in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago's 1.3 million residents are provided water supply and sewerage services by a national utility whose service levels have been inadequate and deteriorating through the recent past, largely due to a lack of investment in utility infrastructure. A “willingness to pay” study assessed the degree of coverage and quality of service and the residents' willingness to accept water tariff increases for an increase in service level. Willingness to pay for change is low, below current tariffs, due to scepticism about the likelihood of change and due to the ability to cope with bad service through the pervasive use of local storage.

Water Services in Mexico: Are they a Public Priority?

Mexico is among the most important economies in the world, but as far as its water services coverage and the quality of these services are concerned, its achievement is not as outstanding. Along with the income inequity, water services differ notably between the urban and the rural population. This paper analyses the reasons for this situation. After assessing the relationship between Mexico's Gross Domestic Product, water availability, legal framework, institutional capacity and available technology, the paper concludes that poor water services in Mexico are due to a lack of political will rather than to the other considered variables. Therefore, to improve the situation, it is important to engage the government in the development of public policies and long-term programmes towards universal access to safe water and sanitation (including treatment and disposal). The necessary socio-political engagement will depend on achieving wide social involvement in the preparation of local and regional integrated wa...

Water pricing and sustainability of self-governing irrigation schemes

The sustainability of self-governingirrigation schemes is currently underpressure in many countries as publicfinancial support is decreasing.Furthermore, growing global concernregarding water scarcity means thatefficient water use is essential.Theoretically the choice and implementationof a water-pricing system should play acentral role in achieving this objective,both by recovering water costs and byencouraging farmers to adopt more efficientbehaviour. In the Senegal River Delta newlyestablished water users associations (WUAs)have chosen low water charges, which areaffordable for the majority of farmers butwhich underestimate long-term maintenancecosts. Combined with the difficulty ofcollecting and managing farmers' fees, thischoice has drawn them into a vicious circleleading to scheme deterioration and poorwater service. New alternatives have beendiscussed with them using a simulation toolthat takes into account both the watercosts and the farmers' incomes. Comparedwith the present fixed water charge basedonly on cultivated land, a two-part optionbased both on equipped and irrigated areasensures the recovery of fixed expenses suchas maintenance, while encouraging farmersto intensify their farming systems byadopting double cropping. Neverthelesschoosing a relevant water charge does notensure by itself the sustainability of anirrigation scheme. Combined supportproviding WUAS and farmers with efficientadvice regarding management andorganisational skills should alsocontribute significantly to achieve thisprime objective.

Poor Water Service Means No Rate Increase

The denial of a rate increase based on inadequate water service did not violate federal due process, according to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. National Utilities Inc., a public utility, owns and operates 20 water utilities with 23 separate water systems. In 1995, National filed a request with the public utility commission (PUC) to raise residential customer rates to increase annual operating revenue by $448,191. At a hearing, 133 customers from 17 of the water systems owned and serviced by National testified about poor‐quality water or inadequate service. The PUC agreed with the hearing judge that the rate increase should be denied because of a significant failure to provide adequate and reasonable service. On appeal, National argued that it was entitled to receive sufficient rates to yield a reasonable rate of return on the value of its property used to render service; thus, the PUC's denial violated the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the US Constitution. The appellate court said that a utility's fulfillment of its service commitment is an indispensable requisite to constitutional protection under confiscation principles. The court was satisfied that the ample evidence did not justify any increase in rates.

Estimating the Willingness to Pay for Water Services in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Use of Contingent Valuation Surveys in Southern Haiti

Progress in improving the quality and quantity of water used by people in rural areas of the developing world has been unsatisfactory in two respects: (1) supplies that have been built are frequently neither used correctly nor properly maintained and (2) extension of improved service to unserved populations has been slow. Though this poor record is not the result of a single factor, a major impediment to improved performance is inadequate information on the response of consumers to new service options. The behavioral assumptions that typically underlie most rural water supply planning efforts are simple. It is commonly assumed that so long as financial requirements do not exceed 5% of income, rural consumers will choose to abandon their existing water supply in favor of the "improved" system. Several reviews by the World Bank, bilateral donors, and water supply agencies in developing countries have shown, however, that this simple model of behavioral response to improved water supplies has usually proved incorrect.1 In rural areas many of those "served" by new systems have chosen to continue with their traditional water use practices.

Poor water service for fire fighting: PUC jurisdiction

After a fire destroyed two businesses when the fire department experienced water supply and pressure problems, the owners sued the Western Pennsylvania Water Company and were awarded damages. However, a Pennsylvania appellate court ruled that the Public Utility Commission rather than the courts had jurisdiction to hear the case initially.