Water pricing in Zanzibar: Effects of volumetric tariff on residential water consumption

Water pricing is essential for sound management of water supply services. However, it is not easy to collect sufficient amount of revenue. Even the water utilities in the industrialized countries face difficulties in revenue sufficiency and much more for those in the developing countries. In many water utilities in the developing countries, the price of water tariff is set too low or sometimes water is free. In such cases, water utilities cannot maintain their deteriorating assets due to limited financial resources. As a result, customers receiving the poor services lose their willingness to pay for water and accordingly revenue collection will become more challenging for utilities. Nevertheless, there is no other option but to collect the revenue from the customers in order to get rid of the vicious circle.......