Case 15 of the book Foreign Direct Investment and Cities – Global Case Studies for Theory and Practice, editedby
To improve the management of the public water supply service in the city of Chennai, the French utility company Veolia provided to Chennai Metro Water technical assistance from 2002 to 2006, under the institutional support of an international donor, the World Bank. The project allowed for the contractor Veolia to support Metro Water in developing the following functions: management, forecasting, operational management and maintenance of the water distribution network at a pilot-zone level. This case illustrates how instilling managerial and technical changes in public water utilities through foreign direct investment is a challenging task. The conflict of corporate cultures (demand driven versus offer driven), differences in appreciating the necessity to supply 24/7 water service in a context where public utilities were not able to supply enough water, and the issue around water tariffs made the challenge even more difficult.
