Public Money, Private Failure: Testing the Limits of Market Based Solutions for Water Delivery in Nelspruit

In 1999, the Nelspruit Local Authority contracted the British based multinational Biwater to provide its water services for 30 years. It was claimed by the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) to be ‘the largest and most sophisticated municipal public-private partnership ever concluded in South Africa’.1 This arrangement, known as the Greater Nelspruit Water Concession, was the first contract of its kind in the South African water sector. This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of the concession as an advanced form of privatization.