A Global Assessment of Nontariff Customer Assistance Programs in Water Supply and Sanitation

Cook, Joseph; Fuente, David; Matichich, Mike; Whittington, Dale

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-1435-7_17

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Previous studies have used a variety of more specific terms, including “bill discounts/long term assistance,” “flexible terms,” “temporary assistance/crisis relief,” “water efficiency,” and “lifeline rates” to describe affordability interventions, aside from the term “water affordability” itself (Cook, Fuente, Matichich, & Whittington, 2020; US EPA, 2016; Hasson, 2002). In our search, we follow the literature in using these terms and close substitutes to identify relevant literature.…”

Section: Literature Selection Methods and Intervention Category Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solutions to the problem of drinking water service affordability: A review of the evidence

et al. 2021

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Rapidly‐growing concern among scholars and policy makers over residential drinking water affordability in the United States highlights the need to identify and assess the efficacy of potential solutions to address this problem. Accordingly, in this advanced review of the literature, we examine the state of scholarly evidence over the last 30 years on the prevalence and effectiveness of strategies to address household drinking water affordability in the United States. We classify interventions into four categories: rate structure designs, water efficiency programs, recurring bill assistance, and crisis relief. Our findings are twofold. First, the conceptual literature on affordability interventions is fairly robust, but demonstrates both tradeoffs and complementarities across the four approaches. Second, despite employing a PRISMA approach, we identify few empirical studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of affordability interventions in practice, especially the targeted approaches of recurring bill assistance and crisis relief. The literature on affordability interventions thus appears to lag considerably behind scholarship identifying and defining the problem of affordability. Accordingly, we suggest key questions throughout our review that need to be answered, thereby providing an agenda for future research on drinking water affordability solutions. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Value of Water

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Section: Literature Selection Methods and Intervention Category Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solutions to the problem of drinking water service affordability: A review of the evidence

et al. 2021

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“…Qualitative data reveal that supply-side constraints hamper the ability to diversify to other sources of drinking water. As in other low-income countries, limited connectivity to network services and poor quality of such services will continue to hamper access to improved sources of drinking water (Cook et al 2020).…”

Section: Overview Of Empirical Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive Social Protection Programming: What is the Potential for Improving Sanitation Outcomes?

Roelen¹,

Rodriguez²

2022

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Millions of people around the world do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities, undermining progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 that calls for adequate and equitable sanitation for all. Efforts to improve sanitation outcomes have been rapidly accelerated in the past decade alongside an expansion of different financial incentives or subsidies to promote access to services and motivate sanitation behaviour. In parallel, social protection has become part and parcel of development policy, with many low- and middle-income countries now offering some form of cash transfers to those most vulnerable. Comprehensive interventions that couple financial transfers with complementary support such as behaviour change communication, training, or coaching have also grown increasingly popular. Despite similarities between water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) subsidy schemes and social protection interventions, these policy areas have largely developed in silos and limited cross-sectoral learning has taken place. This paper begins to fill this knowledge gap by assessing the potential for comprehensive social protection in addressing sanitation outcomes and drawing out policy implications for the social protection and WASH communities. It does so by focusing on a social protection programme in the context of extreme poverty in rural Haiti.

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“…This segmentation implies selection criteria that can be automatic when there are different categories of services or distinct pricing structures or administrative selection that consists of the categorization of customers who will have access to the subsidy through a process with observable variables. Finally, the subsidy can be direct, when income is able to be observed for destination criteria, or indirect, in situations in which certain variables can be considered (geographical location, quality of housing, among others) [50][51][52]. Figure 1 lists the different models of subsidies and the possible coordination of public policies aimed at universal access to WSS.…”

Section: Categorizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models of Subsidies for Water and Sanitation Services for Vulnerable People in South American Countries: Lessons for Brazil

Narzetti

Marques

2020

Water

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Access to water and sanitation services (WSS) in developing countries is constrained by the conditions of social inequality and the services affordability for the poorest households. Therefore, public policies related to WSS need to broaden in scope given the challenge of reaching all customers, especially the most vulnerable, in order to achieve a balance between the social and financial objectives of WSS. This paper will contribute to the understanding of the main access and subsidy policies in South American countries focusing on the Brazilian case study. The different experiences in this region have provided some interesting lessons about these issues for Brazil; the conclusion is that the current indirect and cross-subsidy policies are important, but the needed practices for expanding pro-poor access require direct demand-side subsidies. A more proactive intervention through public authorities is also needed. A new subsidization model for Brazil is highlighted and discussed.

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A Global Assessment of Nontariff Customer Assistance Programs in Water Supply and Sanitation

Cited by 8 publications

References 30 publications

Solutions to the problem of drinking water service affordability: A review of the evidence

Solutions to the problem of drinking water service affordability: A review of the evidence

Comprehensive Social Protection Programming: What is the Potential for Improving Sanitation Outcomes?

Models of Subsidies for Water and Sanitation Services for Vulnerable People in South American Countries: Lessons for Brazil

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