An Assessment Of The Performance Of The Cameroon Water Corporation For The Period 1967 To 2013

Abstract

This paper assesses the performance of the Cameroon Water Corporation (CWC) in delivering services after four decades of existence (1967-2013) and relates that performance to organization theories. It uses secondary data on services provision and primary data on users’ perceptions of the CWC’s performance. The assessment is conducted using descriptive as well as inferential methods of data analysis. The paper observes that despite political, technical, managerial, and financial constraints that impaired the efficient delivery of drinking water and sanitation services in the country over the years, the company registered modest successes that attracted the financial support of domestic and worldwide development partners. However, more than half of the population is sceptical about better future services delivery by the CWC. Classical organization theory (COT) explains most of the failure in the operating environment of the CWC, while the formulations in modern organization theory (MOT) are found to be relevant to the improvement of water services. As a policy recommendation, the CWC should focus on MOT, while maintaining some aspects of COT to improve performance.