This paper compares the increases in access rates to piped water in rural Brazil by localized water supply systems under two different management models. It finds that small-scale supply systems operated and maintained by user associations lead to significantly higher increases in access rates...

Die Vereinten Nationen haben das Jahr 2008 zum Internationalen Jahr der Sanitärversorgung ausgerufen. Der Weltwassertag am 22. März erhält damit eine besondere Bedeutung - nicht zuletzt, weil eines der zentralen Millenniumsziele der Vereinten Nationen verfehlt zu werden droht. Das Ziel, die...

The problem that we address in this paper stems from the trend to delegation in the water management field. The problem that we address refers to the municipality's negotiating disadvantage in the face of some cartelized water management. We discuss the specific characteristics of the delegation...

This paper provides an overview of the Italian water management system, with particular reference to the links between agriculture and water resources, and emphasis on underground resources. Our objective is mainly descriptive at this level; nonetheless, we try to evaluate patterns of...

A number of countries face water shortages because they need to make some basic changes in their water management. Policy options do exist. Most of them share the objective of treating water and water services as an economic good, by regulating private inefficient appropriation of open-access...

Contrary to current notions about water abundance in Lebanon, the country is facing serious problems of unavailability, both in quantity and quality, geographical and sectoral. Even though this is due to several existing human-related aspects, i.e. management, ill-finance, non-integration and...

This paper proposes a new Economic Drought Management Index (EDMI) that could assist water managers to inter-temporally manage water reservoirs. The index's main appeal is that it can be easily interpreted and that it encompasses in a single number hydrological processes, structural constraints,...

The EU Water Framework Directive stipulates the principle of cost recovery, including environmental and resource costs, for European water services. Yet a definition of member states' precise obligations is highly controversial. This particularly holds true for the question whether the request...

We study the strategic utilization of storage in imperfect electricity markets. We apply a game-theoretic Cournot model to the German power market and analyze different counterfactual and realistic cases of pumped hydro storage. Our main finding is that both storage utilization and...