The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms

Lately our world has witnessed massive changes and reforms in various sectors in many countries, developing and developed alike. Institutional and pricing reforms in the water sector are also part of that recent trend. They are led by the recognition of a need to respond to increased scarcity and deteriorated quality.

Is the water sector different than other sectors, as some claim? Should reforms in the water sector be designed and implemented differently than reforms of a similar type, in other sectors? 'The Political Economy of Water Pricing Reforms' answers these questions by providing various analytical frameworks that allow comparison across various conditions, and by actually comparing reform processes under various conditions in different countries.

This book demonstrates the common threads that characterize pricing reforms in the water sector by analyzing various aspects of the reforms in the irrigation and urban subsectors of 10 countries. Cases from Morocco, Senegal, Honduras, Belgium, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan, Yemen, and the United States illustrate the difficulties of designing and implementing "optimal" pricing reforms and explain how reform outcomes fall short of the original objective.