Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of Privatization on Municipal Water Quality in Nagpur

Abstract

The present paper assesses the effects of privatization or more precisely, public private partnership (PPP) led municipal water reform on the quality of drinking water in Nagpur over the long term. It uses secondary data to integrate operator water quality data, Nagpur Municipal Corporation data, and published research on intermittent and continuous supply. The indicators point toward qualified improvement rather than unqualified success or failure. Testing by operators indicates a negative trend in the percentage of samples that are unfit over time, declining from 21.0% in 2011–12 to 1.8% in 2024–25 and to a partial year record of 0.4% in 2025–26. Independent microbiological studies in Nagpur indicated a low risk of contamination in areas supplied continuously compared to areas supplied intermittently. Recent municipal indicators such as reduced tanker dependence from 346 (2016) to 78 (2024) and a partial decline in system losses to 41.91% confirm that trend of change, despite persistent dark zones and high residual losses. The paper argues that Nagpur cannot be regarded as pure privatization in the classical meaning since municipal ownership has remained governmental. Its principal contribution is the finding that the increase in water quality can best be attributed to changes in operations associated with increased continuity, pressure control, monitoring, and network rehabilitation. This long-term effect is consequential but imbalanced: both of which have apparent positive returns in terms of public health, accompanied by endemic issues of spatial inequity, leakage, and the city as a whole failing to fully consolidate gains.