| This thesis is an investigation of the ways in which the justification of pricing policies influences the provision of potable water services. The focus was placed on how the perceptions of water—as a human right, a public good, and an economic good—promotes or undermines principles of public services.;Case studies from the Manantlan Mountains Region in Mexico, and Waterloo Region and Wellington County in Canada, provide a link between the perception of water and the principles in potable water services in a time of changing public sector management. The lack of information from water users limited the level of causal inference in the research. Research findings suggest that there has been a general shift from distribution of water as a human right to provision of water as a public good. Findings indicate that different degrees of management decentralization and the income level of users seem to have resulted in varying degrees to which the user-pay approach is adopted. This, in turn led to water being mainly distributed as a human right in the Mexican case and as a public good in the Canadian case. Water as a human right gives greater attention to equity, while efficiency, accountability and conservation tend to be undermined. Water as a public good may compromise equity, although efficiency, accountability and conservation are given greater priority. However, what is seen as justifiable depends on underlying socio-economic contexts. |
