In the wake of neoliberal reform policies of the current Sudanese government which
came to power in 1989, Khartoum governmental water management has in recent
years undergone important transformations. These transformations had various
impacts on the governance of water management. In the context of a general budget
shortage, trends to privatization and commercialization were considered as a means
to tackle the constant lack of water supply in the fast growing metropolitan capital
area, where more than one third of the inhabitants are not connected to the
governmental water network. While on the one hand side, these trends were pushed
forward, they remained on the other hand strongly contested within the main
governmental water supply body, the Khartoum State Water Corporation (KSWC),
which is linked to the Khartoum State Ministry of Water and Environment. One
important reason for these contestations are the value systems of several KSWC
employees, who perceive water supply to a great extent as a moral obligation
regardless of economic criteria, and who reject any denial of water access for
economic reasons.
Following Groenfelt (2010: 575) who states that “water policies are based on ethical
assumptions”, this contribution therefore draws on empirical fieldwork carried out in
2009/2010 in order to examine the role of value systems in recent commercialization
policies of Khartoum governmental water management. The first section provides
background information about the current water supply system in Khartoum, which is
a necessary precondition to understand current reform processes. The second
section singles out three major aspects of commercialization policies and their
contestations in greater detail: increases in water prices, increases in water cuts in
case of unpaid water bills, and installations of prepaid water meters. The third section
summarizes these contestations and argues that value systems are one major
reason why current reform processes are not implemented in the way they were
perceived.