Water and sanitation and solid waste management sectors offer tremendous investment potential for private sector and bringing improvement in the quality of life of the citizens. This was stated by the speakers and experts at a workshop on "Public Private Partnerships and Municipal Services" here on Thursday.
The event was organised by Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), in collaboration with Urban Unit, Lahore. The workshop focused on water and sanitation and solid waste management sectors. The workshop was largely attended by representatives of the relevant public sector implementation agencies, federal, provincial and local governments and private sector stakeholders.
World Bank's Consultant, Timothy F. Hunt in his presentations provided an overview of the requirements and issues facing private sector participation in the solid waste management along with the lessons and experience derived from the global experience and their relevance and application to Pakistan's local environment.
In his presentations, Hunt highlighted pertinent issues, which included legal and policy framework, public-private-partnership (PPP) potential of solid waste collection and transport, disposal/landfill, composting/ energy generation.
In addition to Hunt, the panellists for the sessions on solid waste management included, World Bank's Senior Infrastructure Specialist Mihaly Kopanyi and Chairman Solid Waste Management Association, Jamil Asghar Bhatti.
The speakers underlined the importance of managing solid waste and measures that need to be undertaken to increase private sector participation in this sector. The DSI Group, USA, Consultant David Stiggers, in his presentations on water and sanitation sector highlighted the scope and potential of private sector involvement in the sector and provided a snap shot on global experience in this regard. The presentations also identified various pertinent issues in the sector including policy and regulatory framework and potential for PPP projects in water and sanitation.
In addition to Stiggers, the session panellists included World Bank's Senior Infrastructure Specialist Mihaly Kopanyi and World Bank's Water and Sanitation Specialist Mark Ellery.
In his closing remarks, World Bank's Operations Advisor, Said Al-Hasby enumerated the benefits of augmenting the infrastructure development efforts through the involvement of private sector participation for increasing access and improving the quality of life of the citizens.