Approaches to urban water pricing
Waterlines report No 7 - July 2008
This report assesses three broad alternative approaches to charging for urban water services. These approaches are the current arrangements, scarcity pricing, and urban user trading or a tradeable entitlement regime.
The report was prepared for the Commission by Frontier Economics.
Under the National Water Initiative, all states and territories made a number of explicit commitments in relation to urban water management. These commitments included improved pricing for metropolitan water.
The report assesses alternative approaches against a number of criteria including economic efficiency, revenue adequacy, flexibility, ease of operation and administrative simplicity, transparency and equity.
