Cost recovery for water services under the Water Framework Directive

Aude Farnault and Xavier Leflaive

No 240, OECD Environment Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This paper examines the concept of cost recovery of water services under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD), including the different types of costs and cost-recovery mechanisms. It presents the state of play in the implementation of cost recovery in EU Member States, for financial, environmental and resource costs. It also analyses the political, societal and technical issues affecting cost recovery in EU Member States. Furthermore, it examines emerging options to recover rising costs, including ways to minimise costs and innovative arrangements to supplement existing funding streams. Finally, it questions how fit cost recovery is as a concept for emerging and future water-related challenges in the EU. This is the fourth in a sub-set of four working papers within the Environment Working Paper series destined to support the further implementation of the economic pillar of the Water Framework Directive. The four papers are best read in combination and provide lessons which are relevant beyond the European Union.

Keywords: affordability; charges; cost recovery; equity; financing; pricing; tariffs; water (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 H54 H76 O21 Q21 Q25 Q28 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-05-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-reg
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:envaaa:240-en

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