Should we pay for water? : and, if so, how?

The availability of water as a free resource and the related view that wastewater is something to be disposed of rather than reclaimed for use as an additional resource, lead to an inefficient allocation of both water and financial resources. The author argues that when customers complain about the price of water, they are not complaining about the cost of the water itself, but about the cost of treatment and delivery. He explains the dilemma that on the one hand, additional charges are essential to provide adequate revenue for the sector and allow services to be extended and properly maintained for sustainability. On the other hand, these same charges are beyond the means of many of the people most needing the services. The article mentions some solutions to this dilemma: reduce costs to extend service, which could be accomplished by, for one thing, doing away with unrealistic standards; recover costs, for example by letting the communities themselves be the controllers. He concludes by stating that if we want good water supply service, we have to pay for it; if low-income users are to benefit from service, technologies and methods lowering the cost of service must be used; if we want it to be sustainable, we also have to pay for the water itself.