Uganda, Kamapala: investment scenarios for pro-poor water services

Water service to the urban poor presents challenges to political leaders, regulators and managers. A new study [1] identifies technology mixes of yard taps, public water points (with and without pre-paid meters) to meet alternative constraints, and reflecting populations served and investment requirements.

Three investment scenarios have different implications for improving water access to over 400,000 citizens in Kampala. One component, pre-paid water meters, can promote social equity and institutional sustainability. If procedural justice is given as much weight as distributive justice in the selection of pro-poor programs, pre-paid meters (the ultimate cost recovery tool) can have a place in the investment plan. The study examines how public stand pipes (and a combination of other options) can meet both financial constraints and social objectives. Financial considerations cannot be wished away when seeking effective strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. (author abstract)

[1] Berg, S.V. and Mugishab, S. (2010). Pro-poor water service strategies in developing countries: promoting justice in Uganda’s urban project. Water policy ; vol. 12, no. 4 ; p. 589–601. doi:10.2166/wp.2010.120
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Contact: Dr. Sanford V. Berg, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, USA, fax: +1-352-3927796, e-mail: sberg@ufl.edu

Kenya: water ministry has lost millions

The Water ministry may have lost millions of shillings through unexplained payments to water drilling contractors.

The ministry is hard put to explain the debts, which now exceed Sh930 million [US$ 13 million] and is suspected to have been lost at the National Water and Pipeline Corporation.

In a report obtained by the Nation [newspaper], the Efficiency Monitoring Unit based in the Office of the Prime Minister accuses the corporation’s board of supervising the near-collapse of the firm due to the debts.

The report focuses on the period before the 2007 General Election, when large sums of money were paid out to contractors and suppliers without invoices or government Local Purchase Orders (LPOs).

The report comes after investigations on the corporation’s financial position. The board had held a special meeting on October 9, 2008, seeking the assistance of the Inspectorate of State Corporations in the probe.

According to the report, though the corporation has applied for Sh550 million [US$ 7.7 million] from the government to offset the extra works under the 2006/07 financial year, it has continued to find itself in debt.

The report recommends disciplinary action and in some cases surcharges against former managing director J K Muchemi, head of procurement Ferdinand Musakhala, finance boss Stanley Mombo Amuti, and the head of internal audit, a Mr Onguso, as “culpable for the financial malfeasance and poor management”.

“It is very difficult to ascertain whether the goods/services were actually delivered/rendered given the situation where invoices are raised without prior orders being issued,” said the report.

Suspended

According to the corporation’s chairman, Prof Stanley Shitole, two employees have been suspended and three others asked by the board to step aside to pave the way for investigations following the disappearance of more than Sh30 million [US$ 420,000].

However, he denied reports that Sh10 billion [US$ 140 million] meant for water storage dams had been misappropriated. Water minister Charity Ngilu said she was studying the report, which she received last week, and would soon announce the action needed to restore the corporation to firm footing.

Source: The Nation / allAfrica.com, 25 Oct 2009

Kenya: Coast water firms to be amalgamated to two

Water and Irrigation Minister, Charity Ngilu. Photo: Business Daily

Are women less corrupt than men? Kenya’s water minister Charity Ngilu seems to think so.  In the controversy surrounding the Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company, she said she would only approve a new board “if it was gender balanced and that the treasurer be a woman to help contain mismanagement of public funds”.

Read the full story below:

Mombasa Water and Sewerage Company which has been at the centre of controversy will be dissolved following planned merger of all water firms at the Coast.

The plan involves merging all the water companies in the Coast to form two — one for the North and the second for the South Coast.

The dissolution of the company which has been dogged by allegations of mismanagement would be a slap in the face of local mayor Ahmed Mohdhar who has been fighting for the formation of a new board of directors.

Three years ago the ministry of Water disbanded the firm’s board of directors following alleged mismanagement of funds and since then the company has been running without a board.

Water minister Charity Ngilu early this year was to inaugurate a new board but had to call off the meeting after fierce protests from residents who disapproved of the people who had been picked as directors.

Mrs Ngilu said she would only give a nod to the new board if it was gender balanced and that the treasurer be a woman to help contain mismanagement of public funds.

But as tension rocked the company, Coast Water Services Board (CWSB) chief executive officer Idd Mwasina said all the water firms in the region would be merged into two.

[...] The CWSB boss added that the Ministry of Water came up with the new regulation so as to improve the management and operations of water services in the region.

He said another reason for the planned merger which is expected to be in force before the end of the year was to save some companies which cannot sustain themselves.

“Some companies have been struggling since the revenue generated cannot sustain their water operations. The aim of the companies is to ensure the commodity reach of all residents rather than for them to make profits,” Mr Mwasina said.

[...] It has also emerged that Mrs Ngilu rejected the formation of the Mombasa water company board since the mayor had flouted the nomination of directors’ process.

Source: Mathias Ringa, The Nation / allAfrica.com, 14 Oct 2009

Mauritius: Who owns the rain on Rodrigues island?

With the inhabitants of the island of Rodrigues [pop. 40,000, a dependency of Mauritius, located 560 km east of Mauritius island] forced to purchase their water from the Rodrigues Water Company (RWC), Alain Leveque laments the commoditisation of the country’s natural resource. The privately-run yet government-owned RWC has installed water meters under a user-pay system without being obliged to consult the Rodriguan population. Leveque argues that not only does the RWC’s monopoly inhibit innovation and threaten price hikes, it also indicates a trend towards privatisation in direct opposition to locals’ rights and representation.

Read more: Pambazuka News, 11 June 2009

Ghana: people deserve better water services, AWN says

The Africa Water Network says that private water company Aqua Vitens Rand Limited, which manages water services in Ghana, must go.

“Water services delivered to the Ghanaian public must be among the worst in the world. Under Aqua Vitens Rand Limited (AVRL), the private company that is being paid millions of dollars of our public resources to ‘manage’ the water service, things are getting worse. In addition to unbelievable scandal of millions of hard currency paid to these most undeserving ‘foreign management experts’, ordinary people’s water charges are going up all the time – water prices for consumers have gone up a MINIMUM of 67 per cent since AVRL took over in 2006. We do not deserve this. AVRL MUST GO NOW!”

This is how the AWN press release starts. Further on it recalls the “controversy and allegations of corruption and dumping of unusable technology [such as "old meters from Netherlands"] and chemicals on Ghanaians”.

And while “while water workers [...] are subjected to ‘hardship, exploitation and dis-respect” and denied their legal exercise of trade union rights [...] a few expatriates calling themselves AVRL are being paid millions of dollars from public funds”.

“The General Secretary of the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU, the water workers union) has called for an enquiry by the Public Enterprises Commission into some of AVRL’s apparently illegal appointment practices”, AWN says. It also lambasts AVRL boss Andrew Barber for failing “to attend a scheduled standing committee meeting on the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement]” and instead taking ” ‘shareholders’ from Netherlands around to inspect part of their ‘empire’ at the Kpong works”.

Contact: Al-Hassan Adam, Coordinator, Africa Water Network, Ghana, tel: +233-21248745, +233-244208184, Email: alhassan.adam [at] gmail.com

Full statement: AWN / Pambazuka News, 05 Jun 2009

See also: Charles Takyi-Baodu, Ghana: Abrogate Acqua Vitens Contract -NGO, The Chronicle / allAfrica.com, 24 March 2009,

A request for an official reaction to AWN’s statement was sent to Aqua Vitens Rand Ltd on 11 June 2009.

South Africa: Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) hands down judgment on Phiri water case

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) declared [on 25 March 2009] that the pre-payment water meters used in Phiri (a township in Soweto) in respect of water level 3 consumers is unlawful, because such use is not authorised by the by-laws, but suspended its order for a period of two years so as to enable the City of Johannesburg to legalise that use if it was able to do so.

The SCA also declared that the City of Johannesburg is constitutionally obliged to provide 42 litres free water to each Phiri resident who cannot afford to pay for such water, to the extent that it is reasonable to do so, having regard to its available resources. It ordered the City and Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd to reconsider and reformulate their free water policy accordingly. Until such time as that policy is reformulated the City and Johannesburg Water were ordered to provide account holders in Phiri who are registered as indigent with 42 litres free water per day per member of his or her household.

The appeal that was brought by the City, Johannesburg Water and the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry against declarations and orders made against them by the Johannesburg High Court was partially successful, to the extent that those declarations and orders were amended.

Read the full text of the appeal here.

Source: Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, 25 Mar 2009

The Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP) called the SCA judgment “a case of ‘one step forward, two steps back’”. [...] The [CAWP welcomes] “SCA’s decision to set aside the City’s present policy of limiting the provision of free basic water to 6kl per month/per household” [but it contends that] 42 litres of water per person/per day [...] falls short of what is universally accepted and recognised as the minimum amount of water needed for basic human needs and dignity”.

“Even more problematic though, is that the SCA’s order to the City to provide this amount, is conditional [and that it effectively] allowed carte blanche (through its own assessment of what constitutes ‘reasonableness’ and ‘through available resources’) to determine the timing, character and extent of changes to its existing ‘free water policy’. To make matters worse, the SCA order explicitly states that while the City is ‘reformulating’ its policy, the provision of the increased free basic amount must only be available to those who are registered as indigents with the City. [...] In making such an order, the SCA allows the City, once again, to unilaterally determine and manage who enjoys their constitutional right to water and when. Crucially, it effectively legalises the treatment of the poor majority as second class citizens”.

[...] “The order gives the City two years to pass the necessary by-laws so that the pre-paid meters can then be ‘legalised’. In practical terms, this means that the City can thus continue to forcibly install pre-paid meters in poor communities (while providing wealthier residents with full credit metered water systems and thus allowing those with the means to do, to consume as much water as they want as long as they can afford it). This is a legal cop-out”, says CAWP. A view echoed by Kerry Williams from from Webber Wentzel’s public law department in his article “Court’s slippery water remedy not good for the rule of law”published in Business Day, 30 March 2009

Source: CAWP, Anarkismo.net, 27 Mar 2009

South Africa: Jo’burg to Challenge Phiri Water Ruling

The Supreme Court of Appeal [began on 23 February 2009] a hearing on the constitutionality of the installation and use of prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto. At issue is the constitutional right of access to sufficient water.

At stake for the City of Johannesburg is “the foundation of its water policy”, which has cost the city billions to implement, and is aimed at ensuring everyone has access to some form of water supply.

At stake for the residents of Phiri is suffering from having water for only a limited time in a month.

The case is the first to deal with state obligations to provide access to sufficient water. When it was heard first in the Johannesburg High Court, Judge Moroa Tsoka asserted the “minimum core” concept (that in dealing with socioeconomic rights, government should be measured against a minimum standard of delivery), rejected previously by the Constitutional Court.

[In 2008], the Phiri residents won their case in the Johannesburg High Court. The city is now appealing to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Read more: Franny Rabkin, Business Day / allAfrica.com, 23 Feb 2009

Malawi: learning from water supply failures in Malawi

The Lilongwe Water Board is the sole water supply authority in Malawi’s capital city. However, its service suffered from inadequate response to system and community problems and lack of transparency in water billing. In response to a request for assistance from the community, WaterAid Malawi developed a strategic partnership with the Lilongwe Water Board, aimed at improving management of water services in unplanned low-income neighbourhoods.

An [April 2008] paper from WaterAid Malawi describes its partnership with the Lilongwe Water Board and a local non-governmental organisation – the Centre for Community Organization and Development (CCODE).

WaterAid research indicated that the system to distribute water through water kiosks was not working. Poor households owed huge sums to the Lilongwe Water Board – the monopoly water provider. They were paying far too much: prices at communal kiosks in low-income areas were twice as high as those in high-income areas. Charging systems were inconsistent and billing was not transparent. Some households paid equal monthly fees for different levels of consumption while others were paying per bucket.

Political and traditional leaders corruptly controlled kiosk management committees and failed to pass on funds they collected from communities to the Lilongwe Water Board. The private operators who were able to pay their utility bills resold water to poor people at high and unregulated tariffs. Many meters were vandalised but even those still working were often not read for over a year. The water board charged customers for estimated, not actual, consumption. Without consultation with users, the utility factored in arrears into water bills to cover money misused by community leaders.

Further problems included: illegal installation of boreholes, failure to check water quality, dependence of on unsafe sources when kiosks were disconnected, high leakage rates

[Following a reform programme] the utility now regards itself as a public service provider with obligations to consult users and to extend the network to unserved communities, while also embracing private sector principles to improve the efficiency of billing, debt collection and reduction of water losses.

Reform has also involved:

• establishing a focal point within the Lilongwe Water Board to whom community kiosk users could take their grievances: the Kiosk Management Unit regulates prices and promotes timely reporting of faults and prompt action to fix them
• WaterAid providing technical and financial advice and funding to rehabilitate communal water kiosks, replace meters, construct meter boxes and improve drainage facilities at kiosks
• building CCODE’s capacity to mobilise communities’ capacities to identify kiosk management options, settle debts, monitor the utility and promote hygiene education.

Source: id21, 01 March 2009

Nigeria, Edo State: Police hold water board GM over N2.4 billion fraud

General Manager of the Edo State Water Board, Engineer Monday Umane and four other top staff have been arrested by the Edo State police command over a missing N2.4 billion [US$ 16.3 million] including an $18 million Paris Club facility to boost water supply to various parts of the state.

[...] The arrest was as a result of a letter from the office of the chief of staff to the governor, Mr Osarodion Ogie to the state police command to investigate cases of fraud and misappropriation of public funds. [T]he report of the Assets Verification Committee set up shortly after Comrade Adams Oshiomhole assumed office revealed that a total of 56 contracts were awarded by the government of Professor Oserheiemen Osunbor between May 2007 and November 11 2008 totaling over N2.4 billion to revamp water supply in the state.

He said the report showed that due process was not followed in the award and execution of the contracts just as the report revealed that huge sums were physically moved around and that some of the top officials being quizzed revealed to the committee that Umane only directed “how and where the money should be diverted”. Some of the documents obtained indicate that the General Manager proposed and got instant approvals on water projects from the then state governor; Professor Osereheimen Osunbor with dispatch even before the statutory due process of advertisement, tenders and opening of bids. The governor is empowered to award contracts of less than N100 million without recourse to the executive council.

Documents showed that contracts of such magnitude were treated with dispatch while those that were comparatively lower took longer times to get the approval of the governor.

Earlier,  the Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, [had been notified that] a N875 million [US$ 5.95 million] contract awarded by the state Urban Water Board for water supply in the state, a contractor, one Mr. Henry Ojiekhomon was paid the sum of N473 million [US$ 3.2 million] .for the seven water projects which he never executed.

Read more: Vincent Egunyanga, Daily Trust / allAfrica.com, 29 Jan 2009 and Gabriel Enogholase, Vanguard / allAfrica.com, 22 Jan 2009

Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative

Supporting Secondary Urban Centers in the Lake Victoria Region in order to contribute to the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Starting in February 2009, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (Delft, The Netherlands) will participate in the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative (LVWATSAN).

SNV, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Gender and Water Alliance and UNESCO-IHE have entered into a partnership arrangement with UN-Habitat for the implementation of the capacity building component of this programme that is funded by multiple bilateral and multilateral donors.

The capacity building programme has been initiated to support pro-poor water and sanitation investments in the secondary urban centers in the Lake Victoria Region.

[...]

In the first phase ten towns will be involved, among which are Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya, Bukoba and Muleba in Tanzania and Masaka and Kyotera in Uganda. Mutukula, on the Uganda-Tanzania border, will be the seventh town in the first phase. In all, a total of 24 towns will be involved.

[...] A stakeholder workshop on capacity-building, held in October 2006, elaborated on six thematic areas in which capacity should be built:

• Pro-Poor Governance
• Local Economic Development
• Utility Management
• Urban Catchment Management
• Advocacy and Awareness Raising
• Gender Mainstreaming and inclusion of Vulnerable Groups

[...] UNESCO-IHE will take up the subjects of utility management and urban catchment management, and has formed a five-member team to implement the work that will consist of situational analysis, training needs assessment, preparation of generic training materials, training of trainers, coaching and capacity enhancement for knowledge development and management.

The team consists of Marco Schouten, Mariska Ronteltap, Hans van Bruggen, Saroj Sharma and Maarten Blokland (project manager) and the time input by UNESCO-IHE will be about 370 days over about one and a half year, starting in February 2009.

The value of the contract is about US$ 500,000.

Source: UNESCO-IHE, 10 Dec 2008