The challenges of providing public water and sanitation services in a rural town in Zambia : The case of the southern water and sewerage company in Choma town

The paper reports on whether the performance of privatized water and sanitation companies in Zambia have lived up to expectations of improving the quality of the services to the consumers using a case study of the performance of Southern Water and Sewerage Company (SWASCO) in Choma town. To determine consumer ability to pay for water and sanitation services since privatization, eight sample figures each of recovery rates before and after privatization were compared using simple algebraic comparison. Results as shown by histograms, confirm that despite the increase in tariffs for services, more consumers are able to pay for the services after privatization. To assess the effectiveness of the privatized water and sewerage service provider, The percentage of account holders with in dwelling water taps before privatization were compared to respective percentage after privatization. The results of simple algebraic comparison confirm that the privatized Water and Sewerage service provider in Choma has proportionally increased the number of account holders with in dwelling water taps and hence has improved the effectiveness of service delivery. To determine whether privatized water and sewerage service provider is delivering quality services to the satisfaction of consumers, a random sample of 528 household account holders (representing 20% of household account holders in Choma) from major residential areas in Choma were surveyed. The results confirm that the privatized service provider is delivering quality services according to consumers as regards six important service indicators identified. However, the study reveals that there is a lot of scope for the privatized water service provider in Choma to further improve the services. This is in accordance with number of challenges identified during the unstructured interviews with the management officials of the privatized service provider. The biggest challenge is for the privatized service provider to balance between social and commercial interests in the provision of water and sanitation services as the country strives to achieve millennium development goals. (Résumé d'auteur)