Does Basic Services Privatisation Benefit the Urban Poor? Some Evidence from Water Supply Privatisation in Thailand

Saeed Zaki and A.T.M. Nurul Amin
Additional contact information
Saeed Zaki: Department of Urban Environmental Management (UEM), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), PO Box 4, Khlong Luang, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand, saeed.zaki.j@gmail.com
A.T.M. Nurul Amin: Department of Urban Environmental Management (UEM), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), PO Box 4, Khlong Luang, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand, nurul@northsouth.edu

Urban Studies, 2009, vol. 46, issue 11, 2301-2327

Abstract: Access to safe water and sanitation has been a development priority for decades. This is also included in the millennium development goal targets. Meanwhile, privatisation of water supply continues to be a subject of intense debate, particularly as to its effects on the urban poor. The arguments for and against often reflect the intellectual divide between socialist ideals and neo-liberal pragmatism. Key issues are access, quality and price. This paper reports findings from an investigation of Thailand’s first water supply privatisation scheme implemented in 1998. Household-level data for the poor, defined by community and income status, show a significant improvement in access to piped water despite an increase in the connection cost and monthly charges. The associated benefits from access include improved water quality and service. A promising plus is the prospect of improvement in tenure status for the households living in informal settlements.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009342902 (text/html)

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:sae:urbstu:v:46:y:2009:i:11:p:2301-2327

DOI: 10.1177/0042098009342902

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().