1.2.3 Challenges related to governance

The term governance is used to represent many interrelated areas in government systems and refers to such things as the ways decisions are made and strategies are developed. Here, the focus is on responsibility and accountability of local governments in decision making to improve and effectively manage WASH services. Accountability means an obligation or a willingness by an organisation or individual to account for their actions and accept responsibility for them.

You have read that finance is a key resource needed to improve WASH services. Appropriate allocation of public funds between WASH and other sectors, such as roads, is a governance issue. Within the WASH sector, most of the budget goes to water-related works and the sanitation component is usually left with very little. Even the small proportions of resources available are spent on financing major infrastructure in urban centres where most of the rich families reside. This may mean that tax collected from the larger community is only benefiting a selected few, which is not considered fair.

Effective operation and management of urban WASH facilities is another challenge related to governance. In principle, WASH facilities are managed by service providers, such as water utilities and micro- and small enterprises (MSEs). These groups are expected to recover costs for operating and maintaining the facilities but their performance is often below expectations. Service providers may not listen to the needs and complaints of user communities. Where services are not provided to the expected standard, the community’s motivation and willingness to pay the tariffs is reduced. This affects the capacity of the service providers to manage the WASH facilities and is a major challenge for governance.