Water Pricing: Hail to the British Empirical Approach

• Author: G. Tracy Mehan III
• Pages: 85-89

85

Water Pricing:

Hail to the British

Empirical Approach

By G. Tracy Mehan III

Institutiona l Governance and Regulation of Water S ervices : The

Essential El ements, by Michael Rouse. IWA Publishing, 233 pages.

From the January/ February 2009 issue of The Environmenta l Forum.

At the Kyoto World Water Forum in

2003, protestors disrupted discussions

on the role of the private sector in the

provision of water ser vices. ey generally

argued that water is a human right and, there-

fore, should be free of any charges.

As related by Michael Rouse, former presi-

dent of the International Water A ssociation

and the chief drink ing water inspector for

England and Wales, the minister responsible

for water in Swaziland put the issue in per-

spective when he said that “certainly water is

free, providing you wish to take your bucket

up the mountain to the source to collect your

water, but if you wish me to make provision

for collection, treatment, and delivery of safe

drinking water to your home, then I have to charge you for the service.”

is anecdote is typical of the many gems to be found in Institutional

Governance and Regulation of Water Services: he Essential Elements, in which

the estimable Rouse describes the conditions necessary for sustaining water

utilities, throughout the globe, in poor countries and rich ones a like.

More of a practitioner than a philosopher, Rouse displays a dogged atten-

tion to facts on the ground, free of preconceptions and cant. He relates the

successes and failures of governance, regulation, and nancing of water

systems in Australia, Jaka rta, Gha na, Seatt le, Tanzania, China, Singapore,

Ontario and the United Kingdom, to name just a few.