The PPIAF and WB 2006 paper, Approaches to private sector participation in water services - a toolkit, offers examples of over thirty nations that have trialled a variety of approaches to private sector involvement in the supply of water or wastewater services. The toolkit is available at: http://rru.worldbank.org/Toolkits/waterservices/ .
Some of the lessons learned from the France and the UK and experiences highlighted in the toolkit which may have relevance for Australia are listed below.
• There are a variety of different approaches being used overseas to enhance the role of the private sector with varying rates of success. Governments need to carefully consider a range of economic, social and environmental factors and have community support for privatising elements of the water sector.
• Given the right circumstances the community can benefit from private sector investment and private businesses can profit from the provision of water services no matter the size of the market.
• The French example demonstrates that water and wastewater services can be provided successfully over the long-term with substantial benefits, such as the development of home-grown privately owned water industries and more competitive pricing and service provision to customers.
• Overseas examples demonstrate that for an access regime to operate successfully information on the capacity of the infrastructure and the cost of entry is essential for new entrants.
• The establishment of pricing rules over the long-term is essential to providing sufficient incentive for new entrants to enter into the water supply and wastewater services market.
Q8: | What aspects of the examples provided are the most relevant to the Australian situation and why? |