Privatizing Water Supply and Distribution

Abstract

Dynamic population growth and scarcity of water resources, coupled with inertia in the conceptions and methods of water management, raise increasingly critical issues in the efficient allocation and distribution of water resources. During the 1980s the U.S. population rose by 23% in California (from 23.668 to 29.125 million), 25% in Texas (from 14.229 to 17.712 million), 31.5% in Florida (from 97.460 to 12.818 million), and 38% in Arizona (from 2.718 to 3.752 million). During the last two decades of the XXth century, population in these states was set to increase by 41.5%, 42%, 58.2%, and 70%, respectively. With limitations in water supply threatening to impede long-term economic growth in these areas, and with the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of additional water-supply projects decreasing, an urgent need has become apparent to develop new approaches and methods to incorporate better management and economical distribution of existing water supplies.