Over the years urban water systems developed rapidly and unsystematically and today their implementation requires more control. They need to meet the demands of citizens for the 21st century in a sustainable manner providing good quality and at the lowest possible cost.

Regulation of Urban Water Services provides an overview of the regulation of urban water management throughout world and in Spain. To set the sector in order, the management of urban water systems requires a new tool to implement regulations that cover the varied concerns of high quality standards, growing complexity, social importance, the intrinsic monopolist nature of the sector and sustaining them environmentally, economically and socially.

This book provides a wide range of experiences gained from workshops and promotes the exchange of ideas that will help to lead to a much-needed urban water regulation model. 

Contents

Technical regulation of urban water services: The Portuguese regulatory model of water and wastewater services. An integrated approach; Experiences and conclusions from regulation in England and Wales; Experiences and conclusions from regulation in Australia; Experiences and conclusions from regulation in Denmark; Experiences and conclusions from regulation in Latin America; The German benchmarking experience. An alternative to regulation; The assessment of water services from the point of view of multilateral organizations. The experience of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB);  Regulation in Spain from the perspective of the urban water services; Reasons that justify the regulation of urban water services in Spain; Can a regulator contribute to solve the problems of the urban water cycle in Spain?; Regulatory models. Conclusions