Implication of water policy and water utility management systems on the performance of water quality service delivery in Africa Case study from Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso

Abstract

A well performing water utility is the one that is able to provide sustainable high quality water and waste water services to the community. It should be able to cover its financial and operational costs and provide water that is affordable to all. However many African water utilities struggle to deliver service to their customers in a convenient and reliable manner. Most of water utilities finance is unsustainable and unreliable due to dependence on transactions from government and development partners, finance loan accessing is also ineffective. Kayaga et al (2006) argues that inefficient performance causes inadequate access to services by the poor who turn to informal vendors, paying more than double of utility tariffs for water whose quality is uncertain. Therefore this study aimed to analyze the impact of policies and utility management systems on the water quality service delivery performance of Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso water utilities. The qualitative method was adopted for data collection; in terms of sampling, non-probability sampling precisely purposive sampling was used in this study where sample were drawn from a list of experts in the field. Structured questionnaires, and discussions were used to produce primary data. Furthermore secondary data were collected from existing documents, journals, reports and books. Data collected from questionnaires was organized according to performance indicators, translated and analyzed using SWOT analysis method. The results demonstrated inadequacies and gaps in the utility management systems and policies causing deficiencies in water quality service delivery to the populations of respective countries. Therefore, there is a need to have a comprehensive approach that addresses the challenges and gaps so as to have sufficient, reliable, convenient, transparent, financial sustainable, responsive to citizens and safe water services and sanitation, to the communities of Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.