Cleanwaterforum: Clean Water for Life: World Bank Urges China to Raise Water Prices

Cleanwaterforum : A forum to discuss how to achieve universal access to safe, physically accessible, sufficient and affordable, clean water.

We set up this blog to discuss issues surrounding universal access to safe, physically accessible, sufficient and affordable clean water. These issues include, but are not limited to: 1) whether access to clean water should be enshrined as a fundamental human right; 2) how to respond to the increasingly prevalent treatment of water as a commodity rather than a public good (corporate social responsibility and water); 3) clean water as global health issue; 4) clean water as a poverty issue; 5) clean water as a global security issue; 6) clean water as a gender issue.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

World Bank Urges China to Raise Water Prices

The World Bank has urged China to raise water prices to encourage its citizens to conserve water.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_325191.html:

'To provide appropriate incentives for the adoption of water saving technologies and behaviours, water prices need to be allowed to rise to reflect its full scarcity value,' the bank said in a report published on Monday.

It said that water shortages, pollution and flooding had for years constrained growth and affected public health and welfare in many parts of China, which it claimed would soon join the group of 'water stressed' nations.

For more see:

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/EXTEAPREGTOPENVIRONMENT/0,,contentMDK:21015230~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:502886,00.html