Review of the State Cooperation Act

As part of the ongoing water sector reform process, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI) had to make the Water Act 2002 operational in line with the National Policy on Water Resources Management and Development. A key component of the Act is that the responsibility for provision and management of water services would be in the hands of Water Services Providers (WSPs). Since the gazetting of the Transfer Plan there have been efforts made to ensure that all the defined aspects of the Transfer Plan have been put into effect. There was need to ensure that the Gazette Notice was fully implemented and completed to realise the full potential of decentralised management. This consultancy is related to following up implementation of the transfer process and the supportive activities required.

The main objective for technical assistance was to provide legal opinion on whether the WSP’s formed by local authorities are State Corporations; legal opinion on whether WSP’s formed by Cooperative Societies are State Corporations, recommendations on suitable draft rules which recognise WSP’s as public bodies in so far as procurement, auditing and reporting is concerned, and to liaise with the Attorney General’s office.