Impact of regulation on English and Welsh water-only companies: an input-distance function approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The assessment of productivity change over time and its drivers is of great significance for water companies and regulators when setting urban water...     

Techno-economical efficiency and productivity change of wastewater treatment plants: the role of internal and external factors

Efficiency and productivity are important measures for identifying best practice in businesses and optimising resource-use. This study analyses how these two measures change across the period 2003-2008 for 196 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Spain, by using the benchmarking methods of Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Productivity Index. To identify which variables contribute to the sustainability of the WWTPs, differences in efficiency scores and productivity indices for external factors are also investigated. Our results indicate that both efficiency and productivity decreased over the five years. We verify that the productivity drop is primarily explained by technical change. Furthermore, certain external variables affected WWTP efficiency, including plant size, treatment technology and energy consumption. However, plants with low energy consumption are the only ones which improve their productivity. Finally, the benchmarking analyses proved to be useful as management tools in the wastewater sector, by providing vital information for improving the sustainability of plants.     

The impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the performance of water companies: a dynamic assessment

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The water industry plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore, moving to a low-carbon urban water cycle is of...     

Cost-benefit analysis of water-reuse projects for environmental purposes: a case study for Spanish wastewater treatment plants

Water reuse is an emerging and promising non-conventional water resource. Feasibility studies are essential tools in the decision making process for the implementation of water-reuse projects. However, the methods used to assess economic feasibility tend to focus on internal costs, while external impacts are relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. Using the concept of shadow prices for undesirable outputs of water reclamation, the current study developed a theoretical methodology to assess internal and external economic impacts. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 13 wastewater treatment plants in the Valencia region of Spain that reuse effluent for environmental purposes. Internal benefit analyses indicated that only a proportion of projects were economically viable, while when external benefits are incorporated all projects were economically viable. In conclusion, the economic feasibility assessments of water-reuse projects should quantitatively evaluate economic, environmental and resource availability.     

Assessing disproportionate costs to achieve good ecological status of water bodies in a Mediterranean river basin

Water management is becoming increasingly important as the demand for water grows, diversifies, and includes more complex environmental concerns. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) seeks to achieve a good ecological status for all European Community water bodies by 2015. To achieve this objective, economic consideration of water management must be given to all decision-making processes. Exemption (time or level of stringency) from the objectives of the EU Directive can be justified by proving that the cost of implementing measures is disproportionate to the benefits. This paper addresses the issue of disproportionate costs through a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). To predict the costs, the function costs method is used. The quantification of environmental benefits is more complex, because they are not determined by the market. As an alternative to stated preference methods, we use the distance function approach to estimate the environmental benefits of improving water quality. We then apply this methodological approach to a Mediterranean River Basin in Spain. The results show that the achievement of good status could not be rejected based on the criterion of disproportionate costs in this river basin. This paper illustrates that CBA is a useful tool to inform policy and decision making. Furthermore, it is shown that economics, particularly the valuation of environmental benefits, plays a crucial role in fulfilling the environmental objectives of the WFD.     

Economies of integration and sources of change in productivity in the Chilean water and sewerage industry: a translog cost function approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper researches the existence of economies of scale and scope in the Chilean water and sewerage industry using a translog cost function approach...     

Economic Feasibility Study for Phosphorus Recovery Processes

Phosphorus recovery from wastewater has become a necessity for sustainable development because phosphorus is a non-renewable essential resource, and its discharge into the environment causes serious negative impacts. There are no economic incentives for the implementation of phosphorus recovery technologies because the selling price of rock phosphate is lower than phosphorus recovered from sewage. The methodologies used to determine the feasibility of such projects are usually focused on internal costs without considering environmental externalities. This article shows a methodology to assess the economic feasibility of wastewater phosphorus recovery projects that takes into account internal and external impacts. The shadow price of phosphorus is estimated using the directional distance function to measure the environmental benefits obtained by preventing the discharge of phosphorus into the environment. The economic feasibility analysis taking into account the environmental benefits shows that the phosphorus recovery is viable not only from sustainable development but also from an economic point of view.