Price-setting for Residential Water: Estimation of Water Demand in Lahore

Abstract

The population of Lahore has roughly doubled over the past twenty years, and an increase of two million is expected by the year 2020 [UN (2005)]. This has important implications for city planning as demand for housing, electricity, water, sanitation, public health, education, and infrastructure grows accordingly. Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), the city’s official water supplier, has often responded to the growing demand by offering the supply-side solution: augmenting supply capacity by exploiting new water resources.1 Such investments are costly, but in view of the public good nature of water, WASA has kept tariffs well below the costrecovery level, relying on heavy loans and subsidies. While this arrangement may have worked in the past, it is now becoming increasingly unsustainable, because (1) WASA is facing severe financial constraints and which has led to poor service and underinvestment, and (2) the environmental cost of extracting water is increasing. With its low tariff rates and continually increasing costs, the WASA Lahore is unable to meet even its operation and management (O&M) costs [WASA (2007)]. WASA has been receiving financial assistance from the provincial and Lahore district governments as well as international donors in the form of grants and loans with the grant element gradually diminishing over the passage of time. In 2007, WASA currently owed Rs 5.6 billion to these agencies [WASA (2007)]. Deteriorating financial situation has also led to short-term planning, reactive operational strategy, and underinvestment in asset maintenance, future capacity, IT equipment, management and accounting information system, and training [IFC (2005)]. Consequently, WASA has shown suboptimal performance: low pressure and irregular supply, leakages, poor customer service, etc.

A Study of Demonstrative Determiners in Pashto

“…All of them belonged to the profession of teaching at the University level. Sentences were also collected from the literary work (Rauf 1966) and academic work (Tegey, 1996) of Pashto. Apart from these sources of data, one of the researchers utilized his personal observation and linguistic knowledge being a native speaker of Pashto.…”

Water Consumption Behavior of Households in Lahore

“…There is also a difference between the consumption behaviour of monthly bill payers and non-bill payers. The price does not affect the nonbill payers, but past bill, experiences do influence the consumptio n behaviour of regular bill payers (Rauf & Siddiqi, 2008). Various dimens io ns of this relationship is applicable to the household as well as on the businesses.…”

Water Demand Estimation in Service Areas with Limited Numbers of Customer Meters—Case Study in Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Lahore, Pakistan

“…These tube wells abstract groundwater from a depth of more than 200 m, due to the high concentration of arsenic found above the depth of 30 m [28]. The falling groundwater table has increased the pumping costs [33], as pumping groundwater with electricity is about seven times more energy intensive than surface water abstraction [34]. WASA has kept their tariffs well below the cost-recovery level, instead relying on heavy loans and subsidies [35].…”

“…Depleting groundwater resources, ever-increasing water demand, and service area expansion pose serious challenges for WASA [36]. At the same time, WASA is facing financial constraints due to high energy costs and low water tariff rates, which has resulted in the reduction of supply hours by the tube wells from 14-18 h per day in 2013 to 10-11 h per day in 2020 [33,37].…”