Domestic water pricing in Greece: a spatial differentiation

Abstract

This study investigates the differentiation of the water pricing policies applied by the Greek Municipal Water Utilities (GMWU) in several regions. GMWU are being characterized by individual management framework with a lack of a uniform pricing policy and a significant diversification of the payable amount by region. The export of comparative conclusions regarding the overall pricing policy in Greece, both at GMWU level (a sample of 84 GMWU) and at regional level, is the basic objective of this study. The comparison analysis was performed on a monthly consumption basis of 5-150 m(3), for the year 2007, per water utility population served (five groups) and per administrative region (13 regions). The mean net consumption cost and the mean payable amount are calculated for a monthly consumption, because water utilities do not use the same billing period. Fee for construction and sewer user fees are excluded. Maintenance water meter cost and maintenance projects (fixed charges) charges are also partly included. The study revealed that there is a large spatial differentiation of water prices on regional level.