Getting ready for the Anthropocene
Overcoming obstacles on the development path for municipal water and sanitation services
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15548644 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dale Whittington (0000-0002-6075-8812, Department of Health, corresponding author), Céline Nauges (Toulouse School of Economics), Richard Damania (0000-0002-8710-320X, World Bank) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 064052-064052 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-12 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/add750 |
| OpenAlex | W4410289310 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 42 |
This paper describes three phases that cities go through for the delivery of municipal water and sanitation services, identifying the main political, technological, socio-institutional, financial, public health forces of disequilibria that push cities along this development path. Data from the Global Water Intelligence and the World Bank’s International Benchmarking Network show that most of the countries with utilities with limited piped water coverage (Phase 1) have an annual GDP per capita less than US$5000. In contrast, most countries with an annual GDP per capita greater than US$10 000 have close to universal piped water coverage (Phase 3). We find no statistically significant relationship between country-level water scarcity and the average water prices charged by utilities in a country. We discuss a comprehensive policy mix with four components that municipal water utilities need to address the growing water deficits as rising demands confront limited supplies: (1) reduction of nonrevenue water, (2) source diversification, (3) reduction of customer water use, and (4) establishment of financial reserves to address climate-related emergencies
Anthropocene · Environmental ethics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Path (computing · Sanitation · Water resource management · Water sector · Water supply · Computer Science · Environmental Science · Wastewater Treatment and Reuse · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Water resources management and optimization · Environmental Engineering
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| Highly cited | No |
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