Institutional challenges to efficient governance: water, sanitation and wastewater in Egypt

ABSTRACT

Recent contributions to network infrastructures pay increasing attention to the key role of ‘intermediate’ or ‘meso-institutions’ linking the level at which rules and norms are established and the level at which operators and users proceed. Building on these contributions, this article examines the institutional setting that underlies water, sanitation and wastewater services in Egypt. Referring to the OECD Principles on Water Governance of 2015 as a benchmark, it shows the impact on governance of biases and obstacles created by intricacies in roles and responsibilities spread over different meso-institutions. The analysis throws light on how inadequate institutional design might derail well-intentioned policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutions
• meso-institutions
• governance
• water
• sanitation
• coordination
• Egypt

Acknowledgments

Discussions with participants at conferences organized by the chair and with managers trained in its International Executive Master programme were most helpful. Special thanks to Jean-Antoine Faby who initiated and continually supported this project. The article also benefited from comments by Aziza Akhmouch, Oriana Romano and two anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Cf. Ménard and Ghertman (2009) and the special issue of Regulation and Governance, 13(2) (2019).

2. See https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?view=chart&locations=EG, retrieved November 18, 2021.

3. See https://www.statista.com/statistics/1237023/population-under-the-poverty-line-in-egypt/, retrieved November 18, 2021.

4. The political system is largely dominated by men. In 2016, a woman was appointed for the first time to head a major municipality (Alexandria).

5. See www.mped.gov.eg; and https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=36683, retrieved October 14, 2021.

6. Built with the support of the Agence française de développement, the new desalination plant near Alexandria illustrates Egypt’s intention to extend the role of desalination, with 63 existing plants with a total production capacity of 800,000 m³/day, and 16 additional plants to become operational in the near future. The goal is to reach 3 million m³/day within 20 years. Nonetheless, desalination (as well as recycled agricultural drainage water and reused treated domestic wastewater) will remain a small contributor to water provision in the near future.

7. Besides the MHUUD, the ministries involved are: Water Resources and Irrigation; State for Environmental Affairs; Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities; Health and Population; Finance; Interior; Agriculture and Lands Cultivation; Local Development; and Industry. Other ministries can also interfere on more specific issues (e.g., planning, local development).

8. Legally created through Decree 178/2002 and embedded in Law 84/2002 on ‘Non-Governmental Societies and Organizations’, CDAs have the authority to develop different services in their village, but must finance these projects with no enforcing power to penalize bad payers or violating actors.

9. For example, chemical oxygen demand (COD) requirements, determined by Law 48/1982, are stricter in Egypt than in the European Union (80 COD mg/l compared with 125 in the European Union and 250 in Morocco).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the AgroParisTech–SUEZ Chair for General Management of Water and Sanitation Utilities (Chair ‘Water for All/Eau pour Tous’; https://waterforall.utilities.management).