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Mr. Markku Maunula, Finnish Environment Institute:
Policy-making of Water Resources and Services in Finland
- Dr. Sverker Westman, Stockholm Water Co.:
Experiences from Stockholm Municipal Water Company
- Mr. Roch Cheroux, Chief Operational Officer of AS Tallinna
Vesi:
Experiences from the Privatisation of Tallinn Water Works
- Mr. Juha-Pekka Isotupa, Flygt Ltd.:
Public utility investment with private services and goods,
PPP case from Porvoo
- Mr. Timo Heinonen, Managing Director of Hämeenlinna Region Water
Supply and Sewerage Ltd.:
Establishing a supramunicipal water and sewage company
- Mr. Vesa Ranta-Pere, Managing director, Kemwater Services:
The quest for sustainable public-private partnership
- the case of Haapavesi Wastewater Treatment Plant
- Mr. Jorma Peussa, Statistical Officer, KTV Trade Union:
Water service - human necessity or business?
- Ms Brita Forssberg, Information officer, Stockholm Water:
Stockholm Water Co
- Ms Maria von Knorring, Information officer, Helsinki
Water:
Promotion of Public Relations of Water Utilities
- Mr. Osmo Seppälä, TUT, IEEB
: Towards strategic and visionary management in water
utilities
- Mr. Hannu Vikman, Hannu Vikman Consulting
: General Commentary on the Workshop
From the concluding Commentary on the Workshop, by Hannu Vikman:
"The key issue in the provision of water and wastewater services in an efficient and competitive manner is the measurement and control of these natural monopolies, irrespective of their institutional set-up; whether the are public utilities or private service providers. In general, the customers have not been provided with information about the performance of their service providers and by means how to raise their voices if they are unsatisfied with the service or its cost. A variety of mechanisms, including detailed performance agreements between the municipalities and utilities, regulators, audits and benchmarking, should be applied to objectively measure the utility performance against other relevant utilities as well as its own historical performance and set performance objectives. Substantial increase of the transparency, e.g., making the benchmarking result public, is also needed. The voice of the customers is still weak and measures to increase customer participation in setting objectives to the utilities and in their control should be taken.
Public-private partnerships are increasingly applied to increase the business orientation and efficiency in utility operations. Performance improvement has been reported in individual cases but there would be need for more comprehensive and transparent analysis of the advantages of different alternatives. It is interesting and useful to learn from different ways of service provision and institutional arrangements. It will take time to draw final conclusions from the experiments because some models, e.g., longer term concessions, can not be properly evaluated before the experience gained throughout the concession period and some years after. Before clear evidence about the superiority of certain models, it is probably advisable to be conservative to the extent that irreversible steps, such as the transfer of the majority of the ownership of the fixed assets, are considered with great care."
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