中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumUrban Water Conflicts: an Ecological-economic Approach
Authors: Antonio Massarutto
Urban water services (UWS) have undergone a radical transformation in the last 20 years in most developed countries (de La Motte et al., 2005; Finger and Allouche, 2006; Massarutto, 2006). Just to recall the most important axes: from local management to regional integration; from public subsidies and public finance to full cost recovery and market finance; from direct management of local authorities to various forms of independent and professional water industry, often (although not solely nor necessarily) with the involvement of the private sector; from the dominance of water supply and urban network to the one of water resources management at the river basin scale and the growing emphasis on cleanup, treatment and conservation of resources; from simple, discretional and benevolent regulation to more sophisticated, controversial and adversarial regulatory systems; from sectoral water policy focused on infrastructure development to integrated management focused on sustainability.