Improving water use through pricing and information in South Africa

Water is both a natural and a social resource. As a natural resource, it is necessary for human survival; as a social resource, inequality in access to clean water makes it difficult to overcome other inequalities.

Few places understand both aspects of water better than South Africa. In 2018, the rest of the world watched in awe as the city of Cape Town nearly ran out of water after a historic drought. In the early 1990s, the country’s post-Apartheid constitution codified access to water as a basic right, recognizing this as a necessary step on the long road towards creating a less unequal society.

Ensuring sustainable access to water that delivers social benefits requires more than just building pipelines. Incentives are needed to reduce waste and ensure that water is used in a socially efficient way - this requires thoughtful pricing strategies. Consumers need to be able to manage their water use and pay their bills - this requires information. This collection of projects investigates how each of these aspects of the water delivery system can be improved.