Imagine this — you get water 24X7, no storage hassles, no uncertainty. Sounds like a great deal? Wait, that’s a facility that will come at a price, for after all this is a private scheme. Is uninterrupted water supply worth the steep price?
But then, do we really need privatisation of water? What happens to households that cannot afford it? Will more water be wasted? Gaurav Dwivedi, in a book that was released on Thursday, Public-Private Partnerships In Water Sector: Partnerships or Privatisations? looks at the “partnership” aspect of water-related projects. At a presentation at Ashirwad in the city, he said that he drew inspiration from the model he saw at Tiruppur, a Tamil Nadu town famous as the centre of textile export trade.
“Tiruppur showed that private-public partnership (PPP) just does not work in favour of the people,” said Dwivedi, “There is no partnership. The state or government ends up bearing the investment expenses, as well as the accountability for the whole project. The private player is only a service provider.”
Those throwing their weight behind PPP often make it appear like that is the cheaper mode of operating, Dwivedi said. “They say the private corporation is more efficient, and that it will bring in greater private investment too. However, studies show that in case of many of the PPPs, the government ends up funding nearly 90% of the projects,” he said, adding that even the notion that some of the risks involved would be borne by private players does not hold.
“No transfer of risks to the private players really takes place,” said Dwivedi. “With a private player in the picture, water tariff goes up by at least 2% to 5%. This means your water bill could come to Rs1,500, for instance. Someone who can afford it will not feel the pinch so bad, but what happens to the 40% of the population that lives below the poverty line?” Dwivedi drew on examples from rural Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan to show how the utility provider could involve the community in designing and budgeting. For BPL families,5,000 litres of water could be allowed free, and consumption above that could be charged, he said.
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