Water Pricing Policy as Tool to Induce Efficiency in Water Resources Management
University Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences, University of Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
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Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(10), 3534; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103534
Received: 28 April 2020
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Revised: 12 May 2020
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Accepted: 15 May 2020
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Published: 18 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Systems Modeling and Management: Quantity and Quality)
This research seeks to determine and analyze the reaction to an increase in the water invoice with the aim of introducing improvements in wastewater treatments. To this end, the purification situation is analyzed and the price elasticities of demand are obtained through Ordinary Minimum Squares. The results show that there are several small noncompliant treatment plants, as well as a complex interaction among consumption, price, and income. In many cases, the results offer small or significant differences without a clear pattern. However, it highlights the number of household members as it is strongly related to consumption and price and not considering it in the elaboration or modification of the water tariff would lead to inefficiencies. A reduction in revenue has also been found due to the strong consumer reaction, so it is necessary to assess in more depth what kind of price change would be most appropriate, as well as whether such measures would be best suited to address the problem.
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Keywords:
water pricing; household budget; household structure; price elasticity; public health; wastewater treatment
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
García-López, M.; Montano, B.; Melgarejo, J. Water Pricing Policy as Tool to Induce Efficiency in Water Resources Management. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 3534. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103534
AMA Style
García-López M, Montano B, Melgarejo J. Water Pricing Policy as Tool to Induce Efficiency in Water Resources Management. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(10):3534. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103534
Chicago/Turabian StyleGarcía-López, Marcos, Borja Montano, and Joaquín Melgarejo. 2020. "Water Pricing Policy as Tool to Induce Efficiency in Water Resources Management" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 10: 3534. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103534
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