Urban Water Pricing Balancing Financial Viability and Social Fairness

Dear Colleagues,

Urban water utilities increasingly face a complex and persistent dilemma: how to set water service prices that ensure financial sustainability while maintaining socially equitable access for all consumers. Rapid urbanization, aging infrastructure, climate-related pressures, and tightening regulatory requirements are driving operational costs upward. To remain viable, utilities must secure sufficient revenue to fund maintenance, rehabilitation, and long-term capital investments. However, tariff increases often place disproportionate burdens on low-income households, deepening affordability challenges and raising concerns regarding the human right to safe and affordable water.

Balancing these opposing imperatives requires a nuanced approach that integrates cost-reflective pricing with targeted social protection mechanisms. Innovative tariff structures, such as increasing block tariffs, lifeline rates, and income-adjusted subsidies, offer potential pathways to reconcile economic efficiency with social fairness. At the same time, transparent governance, stakeholder engagement, and data-driven decision-making are essential for maintaining public trust.

In this context, urban water pricing becomes more than a technical exercise; it is a negotiation between ethics and economic realism. The challenge for modern utilities is to design pricing frameworks that secure financial resilience while safeguarding universal and equitable access to water services in rapidly evolving urban environments.

Prof. Dr. Vasilis Kanakoudis
Prof. Dr. Francesco De Paola
Dr. Evangelos Keramaris
Guest Editors

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