Water demand management: review of literature and comparison in South-East Asia

Abstract

The present paper reviews the literature on urban water demand management and compares practices in South-East Asia. Existing literature is mostly from developed economies and is concerned mainly with elasticity studies, which are not relevant to developing countries because their main problem is non-revenue water. Cities in South-East Asia employ both price and non-price mechanisms to regulate demand. Price mechanisms include increasing block tariffs, fixed, volumetric, raw water, and conservancy charges, rebates, cross-subsidies and periodic rebasing. Non-price mechanisms such as management, engineering and regulatory mechanisms, as well as public education and community involvement, play important roles. More studies are needed to establish their efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

Keywords:

• water policy
• urban water
• water demand management
• South-East Asia
• India

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their valuable comments and suggestions. We also thank the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 70973064) for its support of this work.