More autonomy for Iranian water and wastewater companies

New challenges for the Iranian water sector

Iran’s water sector institutions are facing comprehensive modernisation.  The sector is due to be decentralised in order to pass the responsibility for water supply and wastewater disposal entirely over to the relevant parties in the provinces. Within this World Bank-funded consulting project, inter 3 has been commissioned to identify institutional optimisation possibilities in Iran’s water management and to develop strategies to implement these.

Objectives: Efficiency through autonomy

The project aims to increase efficiency in the water sector as well as to improve the service. To achieve this, it is planned to transfer ownership to the water and wastewater companies at the regional level, to give them more autonomy for example in personnel decisions and in their financial and investment planning, and to engage investors. The establishment of independent control institutions for water quality, resource and environmental conservation, as well as customer services is a prerequisite for efficiency and quality.

Approach: Joint consultation towards custom-fit solution approaches

Based on current and future challenges, inter 3 will formulate an action plan which will be laid out in an implementation strategy with concrete measures for the institutional optimisation of the water and wastewater sectors. Solution approaches will be worked out through a comparative analysis of international case studies.  These will then be discussed with Iranian and international experts, and ultimately fit to the specific conditions in Iran.

Results: Optimisation of structures and processes

The project is divided into three phases. The result of the first phase is an analysis of the current mode of operation of Iran’s water and wastewater sectors. Phase two will build on this with two recommendations for structural and procedural optimisation (distinguishing between increase in autonomy, decentralisation measures, and public-private partnerships). Phase three will describe a concrete road map for creating the necessary framework, in particular the establishment of the independent control authorities and the transfer of ownership to the organisations.