ASi" kUCTURE FlOR DEVELOPMENT

* iW- . ... .- African countries, spending $1 million to reduce
F-r- iacces -a:
E line losses could save $12 million in generating ca-
- e i- dvel g c r es paity. Irrigation efficiency (the proportion of water
iwrrowed over the -pastdecade. - - delivered to the field) in developing country projects
is typically 25 to 30 percent, compared with 40
- . to -- 45 -j percent ->g < under .r;- best practice.
- *ge ulatin iih.-;-- Inefficient use of labor is especially common and
'- ,' 1 costly in infrastructure. At various periods, twoithirds
of thelabor inrailways inTanzania and Zaire,
ZV_M 4- percent | liO8 of port staff in Argetina (before recent
privatiations), and one-quarter of highway depart-
-ment staff in Brazil have been estimated to be redundanL
The combination of overstffing and -underpricing
of railwuay services. produced a wage bill
-. S > ; .*; Si - -- - almost as large as (and sometirnes larger tlhan) total
,i- fP lisr; W r S railway reven.ues in Aentina(before rect re
£ ~~~~~~~~~forms) and in Colombia, Egypt, NVigeria, Tur-key,
and Uruguay, Overstaffing is also common in
water, power, and telecommunications. At tei
same time, in the production of public works and
rural infrastructure, developing counties often
use equipment-based methods of construction and
maintenance rather tain employment-mtenve ap
proaches that can produce high-quality results,
while being more consistent with relative capital
*90 190 i and labor costs.
ADEQUAX rMcANE. aoselyrelated too
-E .Pow .:er> - -.-....... inefficiencies :..-^--......erating is lack of maintenance roads
*6 - deteriorate, f irrigation canals leak, water pumps
f1X J;si-Cd. n . -break down, sanitation sysems overflow, installed
-, . . = phone lines fail, and power generators are not available
when needed. Capacty is hen lost, output deines,.
and substantal additional investment is
needed simply to sustain exsting levels of service
.In the road sector, inadequate maintenance immon
patterns-operational inefficiencies, inade- poses large recurrent and capital costs. The engiquate
maintenance, excessive dependence on fiscal neering and physical properties of paved roads are
resources, lack of responsiveness to users'. needs, such that, as a road begins to deteriorate, lack of reglimited
benefits to the poor, and insufficient envi- ular routine maintenance will hasten deterioration.
-onmnental responsibility.
Neglect of (relatively inexpensive) routine maintenance
can compound problems so much that the en-
INEFlCaENCY OF oPERAMONS. The broadest indica- tire surface of a road has to be replaced. Examinator
of inefficient performance by an infrastructure tion of completed -Bank highway projects shows
system is the extent of output lost in delivery. Unac- that, on average, estimated retums on projects incounted-for
water (that portion of supply for which volving primarily maintenance are almost twice as
consumption is not. recorded, largely because of high as those on projects involving mainly new contechnical
and managerial failures) is typically two to struction. Yet, in Sub-Saharan Africa, almost $13 bilthree
times higher in developing country systems lion worth of roads-one-third of those built in the
than in countries that achieve the industry stan- past twenty years-have eroded because. of lack of
dards. In 1987 one-quarter of the power utilities in maintenance. In Latin Ameica, for every dollar not
developing countries had losses of electricity in the spent on maintenance, $3 to $4 are estimated to be
transmission and distnrbution network that were required for premature reconstruction. Maintenance
twice those in efficiently operated systems. In some expenditures often are not allocated by economic
r