Urban Water Tariffs in Spain: What Needs to Be Done?

Water

Miguel A. Garc໚-Rubio¹  Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde¹  Francisco González-Gómez¹ 

[1] Department of Applied Economics, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja s/n, Granada 18011, Spain; E-Mails:

关键词: water pricing;    urban water services;    cost recovery;    efficiency and sustainability;    affordability;    fairness and equity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w7041456

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Recently, in the context of the Integrated Water Resources Management, demand policies are playing a more important role as opposed to traditional supply policies based on the construction of large hydraulic infrastructures. In this new context, water tariffs have become an important tool in achieving economic efficiency, environmental sustainability, and social equity. This paper reviews the situation of urban water tariffs in Spain, a country subject to high water stress. It analyzes the capacity of urban water tariffs to recover service costs and to promote efficiency, sustainability, affordability, and equity. Although it has made significant progress in recent years, the Spanish urban water tariff system still faces many challenges. Many of these challenges would be better addressed by a national independent regulatory body.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.