As China transitions to a market economy, municipal utilities are evolving into commercially viable companies under government oversight. Great challenges confront the reform process for China's water utilities, including rapid urbanization and emerging inequality, coupled with severe water...

Drawing upon the World Bank's experience in China, as well as the Bank's global knowledge, this report paints an attainable vision for the urban water sector in the year 2020. This vision entails the provision of safe and reliable drinking water for all, comprehensive stormwater drainage, and...

Water sector reforms in recent years have concentrated on involving the private sector in the operation and management of monopoly water utilities. Much effort has gone into regulation to stop utilities from abusing their monopoly power, but relatively little into considering ways to reduce that...

The design of regulation for water supply and sanitation (WSS) services has tended to follow a check-box approach - diagnose the need, prescribe an independent regulator or similar model (often developed in a different sector or country), and hope for the best. This approach has not always...

Successful mid-sized cities will be vital to India’s growth and prosperity in the coming decades. Indian cities are home to over 375 million people now, and their population is likely to double by 2035. Yet water supply in most mid-sized cities falls short of Government of India benchmarks for...

Professionalization contracts are a new concept. The aim of these contracts is to enlist the support of specialized private firms in turning public water utilities into competent professional operators. This report looks at how the business model for such contracts may work. This report builds...