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SAVING WATER

Introduction | Hydraulic efficiency | Water and Tourism | The cost and the sale price | Cost, price and the water invoice | Sustainable managment | Water quality

The cost of managing water and the sale price

Central government and local taxes do not cover the investment needed to provide water to citizens. Therefore, the end users are paying a larger amount of money every year for water used.

New quality policies and water treatment regulations have also increased the price of water for human consumption. For example, in Spain the cost of water treatment has increased from 20% to 30% of the total invoice in less than 5 years. This tendency will continue in the next years given that only 77% of the population has access to adequate purified water, 14% has treated water and 9% consume substandard water. The remaining steps to take are the most expensive because they involve small towns with low incomes and low efficiency rates.

There are factors to consider when evaluating the sustainability of water usage such as:

• Citizen´s lack of understanding of the cost of the water services.
  
  
• General lack of perception in society of the cost of water given its low impact on the total family budget
  
  

Conscious companies are applying new accounting and financial concepts to calculate the cost-benefits of water efficient facilities

Introduction | Hydraulic efficiency | Water and Tourism | The cost and the sale price | Cost, price and the water invoice | Sustainable managment | Water quality