Affordability and accessibility in the water and wastewater services in Portugal

The world population growth over the last century has led to an exponential increase in water use, besides more scarcity of this resource and a drop in its quality. One of the major failures in the water sector has been the low price that different stakeholders pay for this good. The fact that a fair price has not been paid for water reflects its overuse with impacts on the environment and on the lives of future generations. In this context, it is expected that the expenses with the water and wastewater services will rise all over the world in order to achieve a more sustainable management of this resource and improve its quality. This research makes a comparison between the costs that families from different countries have with these services and examines in detail the impact of these charges in Portuguese households, providing evidence of the results of two recent studies and ongoing reforms. We conclude that the increase in the price of water resources will be unavoidable and therefore a greater part of family income will be spent on these services. This work shows that the biggest problems of affordability which may come up in the future will occur in the countryside of Portugal.