Water, Electricity and the Poor – Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?, November 2005
While consumer utility subsidies are widespread in both the water and electricity sectors, their effectiveness in reaching and distributing resources to the poor is the subject of much debate. Water, Electricity, and the Poor brings together empirical evidence on subsidy performance across a wide range of countries. It documents the prevalence of consumer subsidies, provides a typology of the many variants found in the developing world, and presents a number of indicators useful in assessing the degree to which such subsidies benefit the poor, focusing on three key concepts: beneficiary incidence, benefit incidence, and materiality. The findings on subsidy performance will be useful to policy makers, utility regulators, and sector practitioners who are contemplating introducing, eliminating, or modifying utility subsidies, and to those who view consumer utility subsidies as a social protection instrument.
“Should consumers demand higher water prices?", June 2003” *
'Water is such an essential commodity that it should be subsidised. The poor cannot afford to pay full costs. Price increases weigh particularly heavily on them and so should be opposed'. 'Water is so precious that it should be fully priced at cost recovery levels. We cannot afford to undervalue such a precious resource.' Both of the above arguments are defended as moral statements in the above article.
Project: Pro-poor Transaction Design - Upstream Work for Private Sector Participation and Reform
The project aims to extend appropriate and sustainable water services to poor families and the unconnected in three major developing country cities. At a wider level, the objective is to build capacity to extend the experience of pro-poor transaction preparation beyond these three locations. Water and Sanitation Tariffs in Latin America s
A work of ADERASA (la Asociación de Entes Reguladores de Agua Potable y Saneamiento de las Americás), this document delivers a broad and comparative view of the tariff regulatory process for the delivery of water, sewerage and waste water treatment services in 11 Latin American countries, as well as, tariffs applied by 24 private enterprises in these countries. An in depth analysis is made of the regulatory framework for each country and it examines the institutions involved in tariff decision making and subsequent revisions. The report also makes an analysis of main cities tariffs' structures and historical tendencies and it includes actual tariffs structures of the cities.
ACTIVE PROJECTS
* This website is not a World Bank site and the World Bank does not take responsibility for the views expressed
s - Spanish only
Updated February 2006
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