Towards Public-Private Partnership Regime: An Analysis of Water-supply Systems in Urban India

Abstract

The institutional arrangements for supplying water to people living in urban conurbations in India is gradually being transformed from a conventional departmental arrangement to a new, rather fragmented structure of public-private partnerships with regulatory set-ups in few cases. This article tracks the course of this development. It also identifies the prevailing patterns of public-private institutional settings that exist in specific urban areas. The study uses a comparative framework to identify the transition that occurred in the management structure of the states/cities over a specific period. The results suggest that despite efforts made to introduce private elements to operate water-supply systems in most of the urban conglomerations in India, the effects have actually been minimal, confined only to the top end of the supply chain, viz. operation and management (O & M). Instead, the old structure continues to be the dominant arrangement.