Tariffs for Urban Water Services in Spain: Household Size and Equity

Arbués, Fernando; Ortí, Ramón Barberán

doi:10.1080/07900627.2012.642235

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…[33] Arbués and Barberán (2012) There are equity problems associated with the size of the household, particularly regarding large households. Furthermore, a large part of the special tariffs for larger households adopted do not solve that equity problem.…”

Section: Topic Considered Reference Main Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

García‐Rubio

Ruiz-Villaverde

González‐Gómez

2015

Water

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Abstract: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.

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Section: Topic Considered Reference Main Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The design of optimal prices for the urban water distribution service in terms of efficiency and sustainability is examined in [11,12]. Finally, how to design water tariffs considering affordability has been discussed in [13,14], and the equity has been treated in [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

García‐Rubio

Ruiz-Villaverde

González‐Gómez

2015

Water

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“…Thus, blocks are adjusted in order to adapt prices to the number of members in the house. That is a simple adjustment, in the sense that it does not take into account the presence of economics of scale in water ( 2013 ) consumption (Whittington 1992 ;Arbués and Barberán 2012 ). However, it is a good method in order to avoid higher average prices that large families bear.…”

Section: Urban Users: Households and Industriesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Water Pricing in Spain: Following the Footsteps of Somber Climate Change Projections

Calatrava

García-Valiñas

Garrido

et al. 2015

Water Pricing Experiences and Innovations

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As many other countries, Spain has to cope with, and be prepared to address, major water challenges: climate change, growing demand, and water pollution. Climate change projections indicate signifi cant reductions of runoff and water recharge and more unstable climate regimes. Improving water allocation has become an urgent need. Water demand management is now one of the most relevant issues in the Spanish water policy agenda. The chapter discusses the controversial topic of water pricing, focusing on Spain. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) foresees that, in order to ensure an effi cient and sustainable management of water resources, prices should be fi xed according to the principle of cost recovery. But our analysis of all policy-relevant drivers and likely scenarios suggests that reforming water-pricing policies is likely to face numerous obstacles and to raise strong opposition from most water users. And yet, pricing policies in Spain are already innovative and fully implemented for all sectors. So the way to reform is already paved, and we expect that more progress will be made in next WFD planning period (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020).

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“…Thus, blocks are adjusted in order to adapt prices to the number of members in the house. That is a simple adjustment, in the sense that it does not take into account the presence of economics of scale in water (Whittington 1992 ;Arbués and Barberán 2012 ). However, it is a good method in order to avoid higher average prices that large families bear.…”

Section: Urban Users: Households and Industriesmentioning

confidence: 99%