The experience in Buenos Aires provides numerous insights into the opportunities and obstacles to harnessing the private sector to better service provision for the poor. Local governments, the private utility (Aguas Argentinas) and civil society organisations (CBOs and an NGO, IIED-AL) collaborated to improve the provision of water and sanitation in four barrios within the Buenos Aires concession.

However, the original concession agreement was negotiated without representation from the local government or civil society groups. These provisions effectively placed a large share of the urban poor outside of the area to be served, and burdened those living in newly serviced areas with a debt they could ill afford. Without pressure from civil society organisations and support from local government, the projects would not have come to be. Aguas Argentinas, who had no experience working in barrios, nevertheless began to collaborate in 1995 on improving the provision of water and sanitation in a small number of low-income settlements with insecure tenure.

The collaboration took a similar form in each of the barrios, including:

•  residents providing labour and some financial contributions;

•  local government sanctioning the project (despite unresolved land issues) and in several cases providing materials and more active support;

•  civil society groups firstly negotiating for the project and then acting as a mediator between the residents and the other parties, as well as organising the residents' contributions; and

•  Aguas Argentinas connecting the local networks to their systems and taking various degrees of responsibility for the construction of the local networks.

The results indicate considerable potential for engaging private utilities in improvement efforts, but also demonstrate that switching to a private utility does not in itself solve the problem of improving water and sanitation in low-income areas. Although the experiences proved to be quite different, in general the results of the experiences of these four barrios with tri- sector collaboration went against the conventional wisdom in the water and sanitation sector. Thus, for example:

•  Piped water and sanitation provision contributed to (rather than followed) housing security, in the cases where the community organisations achieved local government authorisation to connect networks despite unresolved land issues.

•  Civil society organisations play a key role in making PPPs work for the poor.

•  Pro-poor negotiations are important before and after the concession agreement has been signed, i.e. the utility, the local government and the communities may all have reasons for negotiating after the agreement.

•  The need for multi-party collaboration continues after water and sanitation connections are installed, in order to ensure a sustainable supply of water to low-income residents.

•  Privatisation does not, in itself, prevent electioneering and political clientelism in service provision.

In most respects, the experiences of these communities are very encouraging for multisectoral collaboration. Through such collaboration, residents and community leaders acknowledged that each of the major parties achieved important goals. Residents received reliable and convenient water supplies. The utility expanded its system at a low cost. The local government enhanced its authority and gained local support. The civil society organisations served the local communities and gained credibility.

This was accomplished in the face of the low-income residents' considerable mistrust of politicians and offers of assistance; the utility's profit-orientation and lack of experience in low-income areas; the local governments' persistent clientelism and lack of local accountability; and the civil society organisations' own accountability problems and lack of experience with water and sanitation projects.

On the other hand, there are visible limitations to the approaches taken in all four barrios. While the water and most of the sanitation systems are in place and functioning, the procedures for maintenance, billing and collecting payments have not been adequately developed. Non-payment is a particular problem, despite Aguas Argentinas' low incentive to disconnect residents, given how that would harm public relations and incur legal costs. However, in order to ensure the long-term viability of the water and sanitation provision, and moreover to provide the basis for replication in other low-income barrios, collaboration should be extended, continuing for a period after the beginning of service operation.