Case study on Senegal's water and sanitation sector economic regulation
This case study focuses on the ‘regulation-by-contract’ of water services in Senegal. In 1995, the Government of Senegal initiated major reforms in the urban water sector, which entailed splitting the existing national utility, SONEES, into three entities: an assetholding company for water service assets (SONES) linked to the State via a concession contract; a private operator for water services (SDE) engaged via a 10-year affermage contract; and a combined asset-owner and operator for wastewater services, ONAS. The contractual arrangements are regulated by a series of contract without an autonomous regulator. It was part of a broader World Bank research project to assess the type of regulatory approaches, systems and methods that really work, and to identify where they work, and why. The findings of this case study were published in a synthesis report.
