­Water Affordability Challenges in Urban Water Systems

A vital prerequisite for the quality of living in settlements is uninterrupted access to water supply and sanitation. However, the affordability of users to be provided with drinking and wastewater services is challenging in developed and developing countries. Moreover, there is no broad understanding of the water affordability concept and how the tariffs of urban water systems are associated with different economic wealth indicators.

This study investigates water tariffs and affordability in global urban water and wastewater systems. Our data is compiled from the International Water Association (IWA) and the World Bank. This data covers over 60 countries and 190 cities in a time range from 2010 to 2019, divided by geography (Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America and South America) and income level (High, Upper Middle, Lower Middle and Low income).  In addition, information on water sources, delivery, consumption and tariffs for drinking water (including sewage), and financial indicators of the countries (minimum wage, average income, GDP, exchange rate to US dollar and others) are considered in this work.

Our analysis aims to answer the following research questions: Is it possible to find computational models to identify patterns that can understand the current situation and predict future outcomes of water affordability? If yes, to what degree is it possible and what are the limitations of this approach? Are there actual thresholds for sustainable water use in urban water systems? How can these be inferred from the data?

Our preliminary results and visualizations demonstrate a significant difference between developed and developing countries in the water supply and a lack of a single approach to tariff setting. Some countries could not collect reliable data for each year, complicating the study’s objectivity. As a result, the use of recognized and reliable algorithms to predict and fill in missing data could help complete the data and thus obtain a clear picture of the worldwide differences in water availability. Therefore, our study might be helpful to the scientific community in developing approaches to inequitable water allocation and economical water consumption.