Urban Innovations and Best Practices: Wastewater Treatment: Case Study of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Shanghai

Abstract

Private sector participation may be brought into public projects for several reasons, for example, to compensate for and/or improve on the structural inefficiencies caused by state management, or to gain access to additional financing not provided directly by the government. For example, the modernization of urban water governance in the PRC encompasses: (i) water tariff reforms to allow the water price to reflect full costs, and to instill safeguards to ensure that vulnerable groups have access to drinking water; (ii) improvements in transparency, accountability and management by the managing authorities; (iii) enhancements to the level and scope of public participation; and (iv) decentralization of water tasks and responsibilities down to the local level.