Understanding why public-private partnership cannot fix sewerage services in Metro Manila, Philippines: A network perspective

Abstract

Improving public sanitation is one of the major urban health and environmental issues that confronts most cities in the developing world. Sanitation-related diseases have been practically eradicated in the developed world but these diseases continue to threaten lives in the developing world. It is estimated that poor or inadequate access to sanitation kills some ten million children below the age of five every year. More than half of the world’s rivers, oceans and lakes are polluted with untreated wastewater, which contributes to environmental degradation as it pollutes surface water, rivers and groundwater. This holds true for the Philippines where cholera and diarrhoea remain endemic. In Metro Manila, the country’s capital region that is home to at least 12 million people, less than 15% of the population are connected to the sewage system, some 85% are served by improperly constructed and ill-maintained septic tanks and the rest of the populations still practise open defecation. In 1997, the Philippine government awarded long-term concession contracts to two private concessionaires to bring in the much-needed capital and private sector efficiency to upgrade and expand water and sewerage services in Metro Manila. Some 20 years after the concession contracts were awarded, the two private concessionaires have achieved or nearly met their target of providing 100% water supply connections in the capital. Sewerage services, on the other hand, are at less than 15% of the population. Why has public-private partnership (PPP) failed to fix the sewerage problems in Metro Manila? To answer this question, this research analyses the performance of Metro Manila sewerage services through the lens of the network governance theory. This thesis suggests that the concessionaires were not able to timely deliver the intended outcomes because of the network effect of PPP. The network effect of PPP refers to outcomes that are caused by the emergence of network features created as a result of bringing in the private sector in the governance of public services. PPP has exhibited certain network features that altered the rules of infrastructure service delivery and allocated new roles among the state, the market and civil society. The network features created by PPP are (1) resource interdependence between the stakeholders both in the private and public sectors, (2) challenge of achieving goal congruence in a multi-stakeholder setting and (3) unclear management roles. Data collection for this research in the form of documentation, interviews and direct observation, was conducted in Metro Manila, Philippines. Interviews were the key source of information for this thesis to elicit information on the respondents’ interorganisational relationships and dynamics and how such interactions impact on the service delivery outcomes as documentary information mainly provided information on the legal, political and performance aspects of the Metro Manila water and sewerage concessions This research contributes to both research and practice. This research contributes to the literature on network governance, PPP and policy implementation. By using the network perspective to analysing PPP performance, this research augments the current literature on understanding PPP outcomes by filling out the administrative analysis gap that has not been explored in the literature. Second, it also offers a new perspective on evaluating and understanding PPP outcomes by developing an analytical framework that examines networks, not just a single organisation, as the unit of analysis to analyse the performance of sewerage services. Third, it aims to contribute to the growth of a more specialised and differentiated study in the field of network governance theory. For policymakers and practitioners, this research promotes the understanding that policies are implemented by multiple institutional actors, which can make policy implementation a complex process. An acceptance of the perspective that policy implementation is interorganisational in nature contributes to effective and responsive policy design. This can guide governments in considering the potential network features that may arise when adopting a new policy, such as PPP, that can hinder the achievement of the desired goals or effects. Show more