Water partial privatization: access and quality consequences for urban areas in Senegal

Résumé 0

Access to clean water and sanitation are essential for human life, dignity and developement. Since the 1990s, there are growing calls to privatize water services in order to improve both the coverage of the network and the quality of water, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 1996, Senegal has implemented a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the water sector, viewed as an example of success in the region. In this paper, using difference-in-differences matching methods on pseudo-panel data, I measure the degree to which the increasing access to piped water in Senegal is due to the private participation. I also gauge whether the PPP has induced an improvement in the quality of water, by the first children's water-related disease, diarrhea. The results show that the participation of the private sector is associated to enhancement in water private connections, as well as less childrens' diarrheas. The first impact is greater for the poor, wheareas the second is only for the rich. Yet, the results should be taken with caution, as the privatization was partial, coincided with more aid flows and a public's investments and prices management.