Trickle Down? Private sector participation and the pro-poor water supply debate in Jakarta, Indonesia

Private sector partnerships (PSPs) have been increasingly advocated as an instrument of ‘pro-poor’ water supply policies. This article examines the performance of the private sector with respect to network connections for poor households in Jakarta, Indonesia, drawing on three sources: data collected through a household survey of poor households in six Jakarta neighbourhoods in 2005; data provided by the two private concessionaires and the Jakarta municipal government; and interviews with water supply managers, government officials, and NGO representatives in 2001 and 2005. The analysis concludes that the Jakarta PSP contract has not been pro-poor: new connections were preferentially targeted at middle and upper-income households over the period 1998-2005, and the numbers of new connections have been lower than the original targets. The paper argues that the failure to connect the poor is not solely attributable to the private operators, and identifies disincentives to provide individual network connections to poor households on the part of the municipality, the private concessionaires and poor households. The paper concludes by questioning the long-term ability of private sector operators to supply water to the poor.