NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

There may be a solution to what had been an insoluble problem. In recent years, a small number of developing country governments have turned to the private sector for help and have introduced market-oriented reforms in the water sector. Overall, the results have been encouraging.
The reforms have had limited scope – 97 percent of all water distribution, after all, is still in government hands – but millions of new households in such diverse locations as Argentina, Cambodia, Guinea, Morocco, and the Philippines, have been connected to water networks as a result of private investment. In developing countries with private investment in water infrastructure, 80 percent of the population now has access to an improved water source. Countries that don’t allow private investment in water distribution have lagged behind their entrepreneurial rivals.
Article available here.