Viability of Increasing Water Tariffs and Its Impact on Users

As countries continue to advance and prosper, keen competition for water becomes the obvious challenge for people, industry, agriculture and the ecosystems. Water, centuries ago, has been considered as a gift from nature. This phenomenon has led to extreme pressure from water companies to achieve full cost recovery from operations and management. This is because users usually feel that they should not be charged any fee for using water from these utility companies. However, users...
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As countries continue to advance and prosper, keen competition for water becomes the obvious challenge for people, industry, agriculture and the ecosystems. Water, centuries ago, has been considered as a gift from nature. This phenomenon has led to extreme pressure from water companies to achieve full cost recovery from operations and management. This is because users usually feel that they should not be charged any fee for using water from these utility companies. However, users usually forget of the production and transmission costs borne by the companies. Equitable provision and sharing of potable water for all are vital to prevent any future battle in the world. One way to achieve full cost recovery of water utilities and also safeguard water sustainably for all is placing a price tag on water. This little volume, therefore, investigates the feasibility of pricing water, and the willingness and affordability of users towards increasing water tariffs. This volume envisages a contribution towards ongoing debates on the importance of considering water as an economic good to ensure its sustainable use.