Editorial: World Water Forum— A Personal Reflection

Water Policy, 2000

2000

Economy and Agricultural Policies, Rural Development, Rural Tourism, Rural Legislation, Agricultural Extension, 2012

This paper aims to highlight some of the main issues and challenges raised by developing and implementing the most appropriate and efficient approach for water pricing, to induce a sustainable water management (in its both edges of demand and supply). Therefore, we analyse some of the most important theoretical or mathematical models of water pricing developed so far. We follow with a review of opinions, approaches and some personal judgement and recommendations on the actual opportunity, principles, ...

2000

BACKGROUND: Water insecurity in West Africa is an obstacle to economic development and to food and health security. Ineffective water resource management has resulted in excessive or inappropriate government expenditure, early deterioration of infrastructure, wasted community labor spent hauling water, community health and nutrition problems from poor water quality or inaccessible supply, intersectoral and regional conflict, water wasted to evaporation, limited cropping cycles, soil and water degradation, and under-investment from the private sector. Many of these problems arise because prices charged for water bear little relation to the costs of its extraction and distribution. Appropriate water pricing strategies are critical to building a viable and sustainable water security policy in West Africa and in the sub-region.

2014

This paper provides an overview of the special issue on "Water policy, productivity and economic efficiency". In particular, it includes an overview of key topics on the future of water as a productive factor, in the context of alternative uses and perspective scenarios. The selected papers cover a wide range of relevant economic issues and are presented in three categories: productivity assessment, institutional framework and mechanisms, and governance aspects. The paper concludes by discussing future research challenges in this field.

2011

In the Mediterranean countries water management is not only a matter of setting the price of water, but also of securing the availability of water. In Cyprus, water supply is based on rainfall that is becoming less and less with time. Water pricing should take into account covering the primary costs for the acquisition of water such as the cost of the distribution networks, running costs for pumps, and the intended use of the water (agriculture, industry, tourism, households and so on). Households have the right to be supplied with water of good quality at reasonably low prices. Water used for industry and other economic activities should be priced at its real cost, increased by an "availability factor" that takes into account the available water reserves of the country. A good water policy should promote issues such as: saving water in all sectors of economy and preventing irrational water use (through proper water pricing schemes, etc.); minimizing distribution network l...

Water Policy, 2002

In 1992 the Dublin Water Principles claimed ''water as an economic good'' for the first time in a UN setting. But water has been recognized as an economic good for many centuries before 1992. Throughout Europe and the early United States private water supply companies ...

2015

Agriculture is the single largest consumer of water. Agriculture accounts for more than 70 % of the total water demand globally and its share is as high as 90 % in developing countries like India. In this context, even a marginal saving in irrigation water use can release substantial amounts of water for agricultural expansion as well as for meeting the needs of other sectors

The implementation of Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member States to ensure by 2010 that water pricing policies provide adequate incentives to users for efficient water usage and that water uses have an adequate contribution to the costs of water services. Furthermore, the objective of active stakeholder and public participation on water management operations necessitates the establishment of a transparent framework on the water service sector, ensuring access to background information, including financial data, which would enable democratic control over water service costs and charges and facilitate the implementation and possibly the public acceptance of pricing reforms. This paper outlines a methodological approach for the formulation of pricing policies that would contribute to the objectives of the WFD through the implementation of a "consolidated cost-accounting system" which considers all costs associated with water resource management and the way that these are financed. Furthermore, it presents a case study on the formulation of pricing schemes that can address the objectives of transparency, equitable allocation of costs, cost recovery and incentive pricing, also taking also into account social criteria, such as affordability of water charges and equity among consumers. The approach, which was applied in the River Basin of Anthemountas in Northern Greece, includes two steps: current cost accounting and pricing policies are evaluated against the pre-defined criteria in order to identify the deficiencies of the current system; different pricing schemes are subsequently developed and ranked on the basis of their performance against the set-out objectives. Results from the assessment, which was undertaken within the framework of the LIFE Water Agenda Project, "Development and implementation of IWRM policy to a river basin, through the application of a social wide local agreement, based on the principles of Agenda 21 and the provisions of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/ΕC", were presented during the public consultation process currently under implementation in the region. The initiated dialogue indicated that there is acknowledgement of the need for reforms in the water pricing system; emphasis was given in clarifying the concepts of the "polluter-pays" principle and of environmental and resource cost recovery as disincentives for preventing degradation of water bodies.

New England Journal of Public Policy, 2007

A s we move into the International "Water for Life" Decade the debate over whether water is an economic commodity or a social good is at the top of the international agenda. The privatization of water services is one of the most controversial issues in freshwater management at the international level. At the Third World Water Forum in March 2003, Kyoto, angry protesters stopped major sessions on financing, led by Michel Camdessus, former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and that of the all male CEO Panel, which included the CEOs of sixteen large multinational corporations, including the three major private water suppliers, Vivendi, Suez, and RWE Thames. The protesters made the case that water is a fundamental human right and thus should not be treated as a commodity that can be bought and sold for profit. Speakers from the audience brought up horror stories about private sector interventions in Cochamba, Bolivia; Buenos Aires; Atlanta; Manila; and elsewhere. The perception of this group is that the only privatization option is for a private company to take over the whole water system and raise prices to consumers. In fact, the word privatization is a misnomer. The involvement of the private sector in water resource management can range from total divestiture of the resources (as in the UK under Prime Minister Thatcher) to outsourcing billing and administrative tasks to private contractors. In developing countries, it is often small-scale private providers who operate and maintain facilities at the local level. Water is essential for all aspects of human life, and is fundamental to the existence and health of our planet's ecosystems. For the world's poorest, access to clean and affordable water is a prerequisite to basic health and to daily productivity. Yet over one billion people lack access to clean water and over two million people die each year in developing countries from This article by Marcia Brewster is taken from the proceedings of the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University in