Water and Liberalisation

Matthias Finger, Jeremy Allouche, Patricia Luis-Manso

• Publisher: IWA Publishing
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9781843391135
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780402420
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In most network industries, new dynamics are leading to an unprecedented opening up to competition and private sector participation. With the development of a single European market, the in-stages liberalisation process of public utilities has spread to almost all sectors. However, the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector is considered somehow different and it has been excluded until recently from the restructuring processes achieved in other sectors. 

Water and Liberalisation: European Water Scenarios presents a better understanding of the specific demands of the WSS sector. Covering the operators' strategies, the regulatory dynamics as well as their interactions on the evolution of the sector, it addresses the likelihood, the nature, and the forms the WSS sector may take in Europe in the foreseeable future. Adopting a neutral political stance, the book analyses the implications of alternative scenarios in economic, ecological, social, legal, and institutional terms. 

Key sections include: In depth introduction to the current situation in the WSS sector; The European water supply and sanitation markets; The institutional framework of the water supply and sanitation sector in the EU: a comparative analysis; Analysis of the EU explicit and implicit policies and approaches in the sector; Analysis of the strategies of the water operators in Europe scenarios on the evolution of the water sector in Europe; Economic, environmental, & social implications of the scenarios; Major implications per scenario.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction: Liberalisation, Privatisation and Network Industries: a similar path for water?
• Chapter I: The European Water Supply and Sanitation Markets
• Chapter II: Policies Regulating the Water Supply and Sanitation sector in Nine European Countries
• Chapter III: Analysis of the European Union Explicit and Implicit Policies and Approaches in the Water Supply and Sanitation
• Chapter IV: Analysis of the Strategies of the Water Supply and Sanitation Operators in Europe
• Chapter V: Identification and Description of Plausible Water Liberalisation Scenarios
• Chapter VI: Economic Implications of Water Scenarios
• Chapter VII: Analysis of the Environmental Implications of the Scenarios
• Chapter VIII: Analysis of the Social Implications of the Scenarios
• Chapter IX: Liberalisation and Private Sector Involvement in WSS: The European Experience
• Conclusion: Institutional and Organisational Dynamics and Trade-Offs: no Single Path For Water
• Index