Public-private partnerships and lessons from Tiruppur Water Supply and Sewerage Project

This paper by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra presented at The Third International Conference on Public Policy and Management, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore is based on an ongoing study of the Tiruppur Water Supply and Sewerage Project within the context of the application of the public private model in the implementation of this project.

The paper sheds light on the underlying processes involved in the implementation of the PPPs and attempts to evaluate and draw lessons about the claimed benefits and effectiveness of PPP projects in water sector for providing services to the broad spectrum of users in the society within the context of the Tiruppur Project. The paper looks at the structure that the Tiruppur Project is operating under to study the cost and risk sharing arrangements between private and public sectors in the Tiruppur Project.

The preliminary conclusions of the study indicate that:

• The project has not been able to improve the access and affordability of water for the poor, which was claimed as one of the important benefits.
• The study raises questions and is critical of the unequal way in which the public private partnership is being implemented with the aim of Public Risks for Private Profits, which takes into consideration the advantages or profits for the private sector, while the burden of risks is put on the government sector. 
• The paper also draws lessons about the concerns with PPP model at the structural level in water sector in achieving the objectives of supplying water to meet domestic needs of the poor and marginalised sections.

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