From Rowdy Cartels to Organized Ones? The Transfer of Power in Urban Water Supply in Kenya

Akosua Sarpong Boakye-Ansah (), Klaas Schwartz and Margreet Zwarteveen
Additional contact information
Akosua Sarpong Boakye-Ansah: IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education
Klaas Schwartz: IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education
Margreet Zwarteveen: IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education

The European Journal of Development Research, 2019, vol. 31, issue 5, No 3, 1246-1262

Abstract: Abstract Due to the limited presence of formal water utilities in urban low-income areas in many developing countries, water supply is carried out by informal private providers. As part of efforts towards improving water services to low-income areas, the activities of these informal providers are currently being acknowledged through various formalization approaches. This article investigates one such formalization approach, which consists of partnerships between the utility and the informal providers. This is an approach which allows the utility to partially withdraw from service provisioning to the low-income areas. Based on empirical evidence from three such partnerships in low-income areas in three Kenyan cities, we show in this article that formalization redefines and strengthens the legal capacity of informal providers to gain control of service provision in these areas. This can bring benefits for the utility as well as for consumers. However, it also risks legitimizing and furthering the exploitation of consumers by informal providers.

Keywords: Formalization; Partnerships; Informal water providers; Formal water utility; Low-income areas; Kenya (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-019-00209-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:31:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1057_s41287-019-00209-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-019-00209-3

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().