2007 Media Releases
Tuesday 30 October, 2007
Equity and urban water pricing
An important workshop on equity issues and urban water pricing will be held on La Trobe University’s Albury-Wodonga campus this Thursday, 1 November.
The workshop is part of a project funded by the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre to address equity concerns accompanying water tariffs.
Dr Lin Crase, Executive Director of the Albury-Wodonga campus, said: ‘There seems little doubt that urban water prices in most areas are likely to rise in coming years.
‘Various justifications are being offered for price increases, but relatively little attention is being given to the structure of the tariffs and different price regimes.’
University of Queensland economist, Professor John Quiggin – who advocates that households receive a limited ‘per person’ allowance for water rather than the ‘block’ tariffs that apply in most cities – will provide a video presentation to the workshop.
Dr Crase said La Trobe University researchers have modelled this concept against current Melbourne water use and found that it would significantly improve the equity of water tariffs.
The workshop will explore this and related concepts to be presented by water resource researchers from La Trobe and representatives from the Department of Human Services (Victoria), Yarra Valley Water and other agencies.
Workshop participants also include representatives from the Essential Services Commission and a number of regional and metropolitan water authorities.
Dr Crase said the interest generated by the workshop showed that this was a hot topic.
‘Policy makers are only just starting to realise that there are serious flaws with the way some tariffs are configured.’
Dr Crase – also Associate Professor in Economics at the Albury-Wodonga campus – has recently been awarded more than quarter of a million dollars by the Australian Research Council (ARC) for research into the water crisis.
The research project aims to equip water resource managers with an effective means of allocating water resources between rural and urban sectors.