​Private water operators are companies that deliver water supply or sanitation services under the direction and management of public authorities.

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What is a private water operator?

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Private operator build, design and operate public water and wastewater systems under the control and direction of public authorities through contracts and licenses. Their job is to deliver safe water and sanitation services to all water and wastewater users, who are people, businesses, institutions and the environment.  Public authorities decide through the contract which areas and users are to be supplied. Private water operators have demonstrated their ability to deliver water and sanitation services to previously unserved populations, in urban, peri-urban and rural areas.

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How many people do we serve?​

 

AquaFed estimates that 10% of the current global population is served by private operators - a minor proportion of the global population.

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There are over 10,000 (AquaFed’s own estimate) active Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contracts, which are quite diverse in scope and duration. The consistently high renewal rates (90%+) of outsourced private water and wastewater operations contracts year after year (Source: Global Water Intelligence, 2019) demonstrate the widespread success water and sanitation PPPs year after year.

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Why do public authorities choose private operators?​

 

Public authorities acting on behalf of the State decide whether to bring in private operators to deliver water and sanitation services, under their control, to achieve some targets.

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These may be to progressively achieve parts of the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation. Whilst authorities retain their sovereign duties of ensuring accessibility, quality, acceptability, affordability and availability, they chose private water operators to ensure action on these areas.

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The value that private water operators add, include: international expertise, technologies, innovation, customer-centricity, and capacity to reform utilities for a better service.

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Delivering the human right to water and sanitation

 

​The key drivers for public authorities to outsource their operations is to improve their performance against the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation criteria. Here are some examples of how our members have delivered and enhanced these rights:

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• Improving access
  Authorities always place this at the center of the contractual obligations.

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• Improving water quality
  By engaging the private sector to provide the service, the public authority ensures the private party is accountable for any violations that occur within the system.

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• Increasing water availability
  For the majority of the world population, water is not delivered to homes under pressure on a 24/7 basis. When private operators are hired, they have contractual obligations to improve the continuity of supply.

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• Enhancing affordability 
  A common misconception is that private water operations will undoubtedly mean higher prices and that they are a risk to water affordability. The facts tell a very different story. Indeed, no public authority would outsource the operation of its water/sanitation services if a cheaper option with direct public management was available and credible.

 

In practice, price increases in case of a new PPP contract result from operational needs and new ambitions such as investment in new infrastructure and when keeping the incumbent public operator would have led to higher price increases than with the PPP option.

 

Authorities that outsource, compare the price to the consumer between direct management and outsourcing. For example, in France the Regional Audit Chamber observed in 2017 that from 2010 to 2017, water rates could be reduced by 18.7-21% via outsourced services in the Paris region to the 4bn people living outside the historical City of Paris. Whereas inside the city, Eau de Paris took the direct management and could only reduce them by 2.6%. 

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