Local governance and the crisis of water and sanitation provision in medium-sized urban centres: Evidence from three cities in Nigeria

Kayode J Samuel, Samuel B Agbola and Olorunfemi A Olojede
Additional contact information
Kayode J Samuel: 146960Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria.
Samuel B Agbola: 70688Mangosuthu University of Technology, Durban, South Africa.
Olorunfemi A Olojede: 54715Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Local Economy, 2021, vol. 36, issue 2, 164-177

Abstract: Local governance encompasses the involvement of local governments and other community-based organizations in participatory decision-making for efficient delivery of public services. In the developing world, however, the weakness of the local government and local governance has inhibited the efficient and effective delivery of these services. Relying on water and sanitation data and interviews of relevant officials, this study analyses the structure of governance of water supply and sanitation (WSS) at the community levels in selected medium-sized urban centres in Nigeria. Results showed that majority of the city dwellers lacked access to safe water and sanitation, an indication of convoluted, poorly regulated provision regimes and the waning capacity of local governments to galvanize local actions towards the efficient provision and management of these services at community levels. Multiple provision regimes, weak coordinating and regulatory frameworks characterize WSS governance. Further, the sub-national authorities’ encroachment on local government funds which deprived these tiers of government the resources they could have used in providing these essential services presents a major setback. Local governments require financial and constitutional autonomy to provide basic services to the people and supervise and coordinate the activities of other governmental and non-governmental actors involved in service provision.

Keywords: local governance; water supply and sanitation; public services; medium-sized cities; local government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02690942211035359 (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:loceco:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:164-177

DOI: 10.1177/02690942211035359

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Local Economy from London South Bank University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().