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Drivers of non-revenue water: A cross-national analysis

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  • van den Berg, Caroline

Abstract

Reducing water losses is seen as key to sustainable water management, but turns out to be challenging. This paper applies a panel data analysis with fixed effects to assess the major drivers of non-revenue water, some of which are under the control of utilities and some of which are not. The analysis finds that the most important drivers are population density per kilometer of network and type of distribution network, which are mostly resulting from urbanization patterns which are factors mostly out of the control of the utility. Yet, low opportunity costs of water losses and high repair costs of water losses have an important adverse effect on water loss reduction. We also found that the country environment in which the utility operates has an important impact on non-revenue water levels.

Suggested Citation

  • van den Berg, Caroline, 2015. "Drivers of non-revenue water: A cross-national analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 71-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:36:y:2015:i:c:p:71-78
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2015.07.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Céline Nauges & Caroline Berg, 2008. "Economies of density, scale and scope in the water supply and sewerage sector: a study of four developing and transition economies," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 144-163, October.
    2. Prieto, Ángel & Zofío, José Luis & Álvarez, Inmaculada, 2010. "Urban patterns, population density and optimal city dimension: The case of public infrastructure," Working Papers in Economic Theory 2010/08, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History).
    3. Serge Garcia & Alban Thomas, 2001. "The Structure of Municipal Water Supply Costs: Application to a Panel of French Local Communities," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 5-29, July.
    4. Francisco Sáez-Fernández & Francisco González-Gómez & Andrés Picazo-Tadeo, 2011. "Opportunity Costs of Ensuring Sustainability in Urban Water Services," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 693-708.
    5. Alexander Danilenko & Caroline van den Berg & Berta Macheve & L. Joe Moffitt, 2014. "The IBNET Water Supply and Sanitation Blue Book 2014 : The International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities Databook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 19811, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bako Kinga-Erzsebet & Fulop Arpad-Zoltan, 2017. "Profitability And Efficiency Analysis In Water And Sewerage Sector In Romania," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 4, pages 96-102, August.
    2. Reza Moasheri & Mohammadreza Jalili-Ghazizadeh, 2020. "Locating of Probabilistic Leakage Areas in Water Distribution Networks by a Calibration Method Using the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 34(1), pages 35-49, January.
    3. Şişman, Eyüp & Kızılöz, Burak, 2020. "Trend-risk model for predicting non-revenue water: An application in Turkey," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Sampaio, P.R.P. & Sampaio, R.S.R, 2020. "The challenges of regulating water and sanitation tariffs under a three-level shared-authority federalism model: The case of Brazil," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. Lim Jen Nee Jones & Daniel Kong & Boon Thong Tan & Puspavathy Rassiah, 2021. "Non-Revenue Water in Malaysia: Influence of Water Distribution Pipe Types," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, February.
    6. Meireles, Inês & Sousa, Vitor & Matos, José Pedro & Cruz, Carlos Oliveira, 2023. "Determinants of water loss in Portuguese utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Libey, Anna & Adank, Marieke & Thomas, Evan, 2020. "Who pays for water? Comparing life cycle costs of water services among several low, medium and high-income utilities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Massoud Tabesh & Abbas Roozbahani & Bardia Roghani & Niousha Rasi Faghihi & Reza Heydarzadeh, 2018. "Risk Assessment of Factors Influencing Non-Revenue Water Using Bayesian Networks and Fuzzy Logic," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 32(11), pages 3647-3670, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-revenue water; Utilities; Water supply; Benchmarking; Developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • L95 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries
    • Q25 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Water

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