Tap Water Costs and Service Sustainability, a Close Relationship

Abstract

Water is currently an essential and strategic resource for society and its importance will rise in the future due to the increasing number of threats. However, water management is not currently up to par taking into consideration this well acknowledged importance. Generally speaking, water use is not efficient and loss figures are often too high. The reasons behind this situation are complex and diverse, however, in principle, they can be divided into four categories: cultural, political, social and economic. Since the latter are of most importance, this paper focuses on water costs from source to tap.The economic analysis presented quantifies the costs of a sustainable urban water service in a structured way. The second part of the paper present a case study in which the economic losses linked to leakage are assessed as a function of how expenses are recovered. The cost of apparent losses could also be assessed in a similar way and will always be higher, since apparent losses (unlike real ones) are present throughout the whole water cycle, thus increasing the unit costs.

Standalone direct pumping photovoltaic system or energy storage in batteries for supplying irrigation networks. Cost analysis

“…According to the tool developed, the number of PV panels (Pardo et al, 2018) and the 86 energy savings are calculated in each case. UAEnergy is a freely-available application 87 (https://bit.ly/2FbNqdr), developed for calculating the monthly energy consumption (and the 88 shaft work consumed by pumps) in irrigation networks (Pardo et al, 2013). In order to enable 89 comparison, water consumption and fixed are similar for all the alternatives considered.…”

“…of 180 water should be equal. According to the cost structure(Cabrera et al, 2013), the variable cost 181 of water is likely to depend on the resource, energy and effective life of the infrastructure; only 182 the second term is relevant in this approach. This refers to the variable energy cost of operation 183 and maintenance (energy cost linked to pumping, treatment and transport; it is proportional to 184 the volume of water treated).…”

Economic and environmental effects from liberalizing utility service prices in the Republic of Serbia

“…In many public utility companies sustainable management is related to a complex set of specific economic, social and environmental constraints, which determine cost and revenues not just of utility companies, but also of the users of their services (Del Borghi et al, 2013;Cabrera et al, 2013). Most of the utility companies that have any kind of difficulties try to direct them to users, so in the end, users face either less quality service or increased price of services.…”

Cost Evaluation of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants Using Water Price Index

“…More recently, Ghaffour et al (2013) have presented a techno-economic review of desalination where they presented factors that contribute to water cost variation among plants as well as parameters that influenced the cost of water. Cabrera et al (2013) developed a tap water pricing model considering fixed and variable costs that enabled an economic assessment of water leaks in distribution grids. Molinos-Senante et al (2013), after reviewing constraints of the cost recovery principle, presented a tariff model that concludes that water reuse projects require government and private user participation.…”

“…Various researchers have subsequently made isolated efforts to model the cost of water production (Zhu et al 2009a, b;Park et al 2010;Cote et al 2005;Verrecht et al 2010;Ghaffour et al 2013;Hernandez-Sancho et al 2011;Abbott and Cohen 2009;Franceschini and Turina 2012;Owen et al 1995;Cabrera et al 2013). The models above have focused on core areas of technology, investment costs, effluent quality, plant operating and maintenance costs.…”