Messages from the Field

Perhaps it is not the most direct contribution, but since it is the sector where I have always worked, I think I can give my point of view about the subject, at least related to my own country: Uruguay.

After discussing capacity building in Uruguay, and the role of UNESCO-IHE in capacity building for developing countries, I will conclude presenting my own experience in my home country after studying at UNESCO-IHE, describing the difficulties and the advantages of applying the acquired knowledge.

Publicly owned water, privately owned knowledge

In the early 1990s the general trend in Latin American countries was to privatize public companies, including water supply companies. Accordingly, in 1992 the Uruguayan government prepared legislation to allow private stakeholders to buy public companies, partially or completely. However, the Uruguayan population rejected the implementation of that law by a popular vote the same year, so that water related services (potable water supply, sewerage, drainage, etc.) remained publicly owned.

More recently, the main water supply company gave to a private company the right to operate part of the potable water and waste water systems. Again, by popular vote, such practises were forbidden by law in 2004, and now all the water related services must be publicly owned and publicly operated.

However, public companies do not have enough resources to carry out all the studies and projects that the planning and operation of the systems require. Public engineers are competent and well trained but are mostly employed in systems operation. As a result, most studies, projects and master plans are developed outside the public companies by local or foreign private consultancy firms.

..read further in the PDF file..