Singapore was well served for water and sewerage services by a departmental agency. The government of Singapore wanted to take a fresh look at options for restructuring the industry to improve efficiency and innovation in the sector.

Jointly with KPMG, NERA evaluated possible industry structures for the water and wastewater sector in Singapore and advised on suitable structures. The study examined: possibilities for liberalized water or wastewater market structures (as for electricity or gas); policy, regulation, and corporate governance; possibilities for monopoly service delivery (vertical, horizontal, or geographical aggregations or dis-aggregations); and possibilities for private sector involvement. Our evaluation criteria included performance against social and environmental objectives, efficiency objectives, and service quality and reliability objectives.

As part of the study, NERA conducted detailed case studies of different regulatory frameworks in the US, Australia, the UK, Germany, France, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the Philippines.

The Singapore government is beginning to implement recommendations from NERA’s study.