Water Services and Franchising Partnership Principles Flowing Together for Improved Delivery

Water Research Commission (WRC) of South Africa studies have found that franchising partnerships could alleviate and address many challenges in the operation and maintenance of water services infrastructure. Franchising brings appropriate training to those on-site, and also offers backup off-site skills together with the incentive to both call for those skills and to make them available. Findings indicate that many opportunities lie in the franchising of suitable elements in the water services value chain, and a selection of these has been modelled on paper. Procurement issues have been identified. Principles for embarking on water services franchising (for use by water services authorities, potential franchisors and potential franchisees) have been drafted.