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FACTS ABOUT WATER PRICE It is widely recognized that water has traditionally been regarded as a free resource of unlimited supply with zero cost at supply point and at best, water users have been charged only a proportion of the costs of extraction, transfer, treatment and disposal. All associated externality costs of water have been ignored and users are offered very little incentive to use water efficiently and not waste it. According to the World Water Development Report 'Water for People, Water for Life', water prices are expected to serve various and often conflicting purposes, including: cost recovery, economic efficiency and social equity. Developed costs?countries show a wide range of variation in water pricing: in Germany 1m $1.91 (USD), in Denmark it cost $1.64, in Belgium $1.54, in the Netherlands $1.25, in France $1.23, in the UK $1.18, in Italy $0.76, in Finland $0.69, in Ireland $0.63, in Sweden $0.58, in Spain $0.57, in the United States $0.51, in Australia $0.50 and in Canada $0.40. When the supply systems are deficient, the poor are the first to suffer. Water from informal vendors is more than 100 times more expensive than water supplied by house connection. In Vientiane (Lao PDR) the cost of water through a (USD) and the price charged by an informal vendor house connection is $0.11 m , which means that there is a difference of 135.92%. Inis $14.68 /m Delhi (India) the price of the water through and the price charged by an informal vendor can?a house connection is $0.01 /m be as much as 4.89 - 489% more. Valuing water has an important role to play in regulating the water markets of the world. In Chile, water rights can be freely traded within the irrigation subsector, like real estate property rights. About 30% of the households in Amman (Jordan) have decided to obtain additional water from the private market because accessible piped quantities are not sufficient. In France, the bill paid by domestic and industrial users connected to the water system covers the cost of distribution and collection services: ‘water pays for water’. This cost varies according to the local economic and technical configuration.
Information from: Source: UNESCO Water Portal, May 2005
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