The challenge to manage the allocation of water efficiently and equably will become a dominant theme of the new millennium. At a time when the cost of obtaining fresh water is rising throughout the globe, Terence Lee analyses the means for establishing and operating effective water markets. He proposes the application of economic instruments and the transfer of water management administration to the private sector as a means to guarantee acceptable water quality in the future in both developed and developing countries. This treatment of water as an economic commodity implies a change in the traditional role of governments in water management. The themes explored in this book will be of interest to environmental and resource economists as well as practitioners and policymakers.

In the last twenty years the problem of urban public water supples has become increasingly serious. Disparities between the effective supply of, and demand for, water has grown rapidly and now constitute a danger to public health. This study deals with the place of urban public water supplies in economic development and with the demand for such elements of the social infrastructure during the process of economic and social growth. Based on an examination of the existing water-use systems in two urban areas in India, this study provides valuable information in a field that is of growing concern to all the developing countries of the world.