AWWA ACE65450

The water supply and sanitation sector's Public-Private Partnership (PPP) market has matured considerably across North America, and globally over the last decade. Owners, contractors and interested stakeholders (including labor organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the general public) are proceeding with PPP arrangements with considerably greater understanding (and acceptance) of the potential benefits and pitfalls that may arise through private sector involvement in water and wastewater infrastructure development and service delivery. These arrangements increasingly contemplate a broader range of services and contract forms tailored to the particular needs of the utilities and communities served. As with any large and rapidly growing market, outcomes are mixed and seemingly defy simple characterizations. However, there seems no question that the PPP market has become institutionalized in North America, and much of the developed world, over the last decade or more and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. At the same time, private sector financial participation in the water and wastewater markets of the developing world declined between 1997 and 2001 and largely failed, with notable exceptions, to extend desperately needed services to the poor, particularly those in rural communities.