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Water Companies (water + company)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences60%

Selected Abstracts

Assessing the regulatory model for water supply in Jakarta

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2008
Michiko Iwanami
Abstract This article assesses the regulatory model for urban water supply services in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. Water supply services have been privately operated there since February 1998 after two companies,Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ), operating in Eastern Jakarta, and PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (PALYJA), operating in Western Jakarta,signed 25-years concession contracts with the state-owned Jakarta City Water Company (PAM Jaya). An independent regulatory body, the Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body (JWSRB) was established in 2001. The article compares the regulatory system in Jakarta with the French and English approaches to water regulation. It then assesses this regulatory system from the perspective of customers in order to assess how well customer protection, a central purpose of regulation, is being performed. The article concludes that although the essential regulatory mechanisms and activities are operating in Jakarta, the key regulatory role of customer protection is not being performed because customers do not perceive that they receive an acceptable level of water supply services. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Politics of Disciplining Water Rights

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2009
Rutgerd Boelens
ABSTRACT This article examines how the legal systems of Andean countries have dealt with the region's huge plurality of local water rights, and how official policies to ,recognize' local rights and identities harbour increasingly subtle politics of codification, confinement and disciplining. The autonomy and diversity of local water rights are a major hindrance for water companies, elites and formal rule-enforcers, since State and market institutions require a predictable, uniform playing field. Complex local rights orders are seen as irrational, ill-defined and disordered. Officialdom cannot simply ignore or oppress the ,unruliness and disobedience' of local rights systems: rather it ,incorporates' local normative orders that have the capacity to adequately respond to context-based needs. This article examines a number of evolving, overlapping legal domination strategies, such as the ,marrying' of local and official legal systems in ways that do not challenge the legal and power hierarchy; and reviews the ways in which official regulation and legal strategies deny or take into consideration local water rights repertoires, and the politics of recognition that these entail. Post-colonial recognition policies are not simply responses to demands by subjugated groups for greater autonomy. Rather, they facilitate the water bureaucracy's political control and help neoliberal sectors to incorporate local water users' rights and organizations into the market system , even though many communities refuse to accept these policies of recognition and politics of containment. [source]

Cost of compliance assessments and the water industry in England and Wales

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2002
Paul McMahon
Environmental compliance cost assessments (CCAs) are being increasingly demanded and used in the water industry, in order to allow regulators to balance conflicting objectives. The 1999 periodic review of water company price limits concerned massive environmental expenditures, and consequently major use of CCAs. There were major differences between Ofwat (the economic regulator) and the water companies relating to the compliance costs submitted. The assumptions used by Ofwat vis-à-vis future efficiency savings and the cost of capital are notable causes of the differentials. There are a number of other reasons why this differential might have arisen, including gaming. However, the principal cause might be more a real lack of knowledge on the part of companies of future efficiencies and the actual costs of projects. The CCAs produced in the water industry have had massive impact on policy design. A number of specific improvements to CCA are identified. These changes relate to increased collaboration between industry and regulators in working groups to design/approve, inter alia, regulatory methodologies for use in the periodic review. More detailed guidance is required for preparation of a CCA. Further use of compliance cost databases is recommended. The entire process would be facilitated by increased training and awareness raising of economics for the engineers largely responsible for preparation of CCAs. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [source]

Phasing Out Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury

JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Effects on Urban Stocks, Flows
Summary Large stocks of metals have accumulated in the urban technosphere (i.e., the physical environment altered by human activity). To minimize health and environmental risks, attempts were begun in the 1980s to phase out the use of cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg). To study the effect of this attempt, we conducted substance flow analyses (SFAs) in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1995 and in 2002,2003, which allow a comparison of the results over time. The SFAs showed a reduction in the stocks of Cd and Hg by approximately 25% to 30% between 1995 and 2002,2003. For Pb, the stock development was more uncertain. Cd and Hg inflow was substantially reduced during this period, but Pb inflow increased. Amounts of Cd and Pb in waste were still large, whereas Hg flows in waste were decreasing. Furthermore, although emissions of Pb decreased, Cd and Hg emissions were in the same range as in 1995. The application of SFAs has provided unique data on the accumulation of metals in the Stockholm technosphere, thus serving as a valuable indicator of how the phasing out progresses. The changes can be related to regulations, initiatives by industries and organizations, and the proactive attitude of the local environmental authorities and of the water company. [source]

Maintenance work, maintenance skills: the case of a major water company in the UK

NEW TECHNOLOGY, WORK AND EMPLOYMENT, Issue 1 2002
Fang Lee Cooke
This article explores how maintenance work and the requirements of maintenance skills may have changed in a changing technological and organisational environment. A closer examination of the skill requirements for maintenance work in the case study firm has revealed a wider range of skill components than existing literature on maintenance skills has focused on. This paper argues that organisational change may lead to the requirement of new skills for maintenance work and that interpersonal skill may be an important skill element required. [source]