Changing paradigms in water and sanitation services in Argentina: towards a sustainable model?

Abstract

International audienceWithin a very short period of time, the Buenos Aires metropolitan region has implemented a number of different water and sanitation service models: a federal welfare model (Obras Sanitarias de la Nacion, OSN, created in 1912), a regional decentralized model (1981), concessions to the private sector (1993), and a new public organization (2006). Analysis of various facets of the sustainability of this new organization in Argentine cities demonstrates that it seems to approach the OSN model, but with territorial limitations and some features inherited from the "private parenthesis", such as institutionalized regulation and social control of services

Beyond the Strategic Retreat? Explaining Urban Water Privatization’s Shallow Expansion in Low- and Middle-income Countries

“…The first wave of case study literature on privatization in Buenos Aires (Hardoy and Schusterman 2000; Loftus and McDonald 2001; Botton, Braïlowsky, and Matthieussent 2005; Delfino, Casarain, and Delfino 2007; de Gouvello, Lentini, and Brenner 2012), Manila (Dumol 2000; Esguerra 2003; Chng 2008; Wu and Malaluan 2008; Neville 2011; Cheng 2013), and Cochabamba (Assies 2003; Beato and Vives 2003; De La Fuente 2003; Olivera and Lewis 2004; Hailu, Osorio, and Tsukada 2012) largely coalesces into a single narrative. The first contract term in each city was judged a failure on the whole, with Cochabamba serving as the most spectacular example.…”

“…Delmon also contends that evaluations of urban water privatization initiatives need to extend beyond the period of the first contract term. Other scholars have also recently emphasized the importance of evaluating the long-term effects of privatization (for instance, see de Gouvello, Lentini, and Brenner 2012; Pierce 2012). Multiperiod analysis is more feasible because average contract terms are shorter than in the first two waves, when multidecade agreements were common (Owen 2013).…”