Failed privatisation in urban water utilities: Can PuPs pick up the pieces? Reviewing evidence from Dar es Salaam, 2005–2018

This paper looks at a viable response to failed privatisation in Dar es Salaam in the wake of aborted privatisation in 2005. The city’s experience highlights the inherent failings and the implicit assumptions that are central to the privatisation model. Set against an illustration of the global political economy of water supply privatisation as well as the specific political economy of that in Dar es Salaam, the paper reviews the evidence base for an alternative mechanism for strengthening water supply governance, the public-public partnership (PuP), through which technical and managerial expertise is mobilised among public and not-for-profit providers. This model is observed in Dar es Salaam at different scales, from CBOs and mitaa at the local level, to a contract arrangement between asset holder (DAWASA) and operator (DAWASCO), up to international partnerships with other public water utilities, governments, and NGOs. At these scales, PuPs have been able to channel investment in pro-poor access, knowledge exchange and capacity development, and to build public trust. Despite gains, issues such as the predominance of commercial normativity remained and undermined some of the core principles of PuPs. In 2018, the PuP contract was ended, and national policy once again targets private sector expansion.