提供安全饮水的成本正在增加，原因有若干，其中包括新来源到用户的距离增加，高效供水系统的投资额增加，消除水污染的处理费用增加。一个重大挑战是用作扩大饮水覆盖率的费用，既当作投资，也用作运营和保养费用，尤其是在饮水得到补贴的地区。在20世纪90年代初，发展中国家每年补贴饮水和灌溉的费用达到450亿美元。不过，现在似乎有一种趋势，要对用水收费，来收回运营和维护费用。
补贴除非具体用于低收入群体，否则会主要惠及接入公共供水系统、具有中高等收入的城市消费者，而使城市里常常没有接通供水管道的穷人依赖更贵的水源，如私人商家。最近对亚洲几个大城市进行了调查，结果发现，非正规商家收取的水费通常是公共设施水费的几倍。在加纳、危地马拉、墨西哥和秘鲁，人口中最富有的20％得到的补贴供水是最贫穷的20％的大约两倍。
在许多国家，尤其是在西亚和北非，水费仍低于供水成本。例如，埃及的每月水费只是1美元。这种低水费阻碍了私营部门投资水事基础设施，也阻碍了消费者节约用水。为确保低收入家庭能够买得起水，城市供水定价方面的一个趋势是实行“累进”计价办法，就是消费者为少量基本需求用水支付很低费用，随着用水量的增加而提高价格。不过，对于最贫穷的家庭，最低的起价也可能很昂贵，因此可能仍然需要为这类家庭提供补贴。在经合组织许多成员国，近些年来，家用水费大幅度提高。关于购水能力的事实表明，如果不采取措施的话，经合组织大约半数国家的低收入家庭能否承担水已经成为一个重大问题，或者将要成为重大问题。
关于私营部门参加水务部门，一些情况表明，穷人能够从中受益：例如在拉丁美洲三个国家,私营部门参加后,人口中最贫穷的五分之一获得了25％～35％的新用水装置。不过，对基础设施私有化给拉丁美洲穷人带来的影响进行更广泛的审查后发现，私有化在考虑服务费用是否承担得起、是否获得用水装置方面，通常不会照顾穷人的利益。贫穷家庭承担供水管道连接的费用，常常高于用水的费用，除非采用资助管道连接费用的妥当办法，如利用每月水费账单分期收费，或提供低息贷款。
生活在农村的妇女儿童更需要获得改进水源，因为她们常常必须走很远的路去打水。这既耗费时间，也耗费精力，这种时间和精力本可以用来增加收入和接受教育。
原文如下：
Equity and affordability
The cost of supplying safe drinking water is increasing owing to a number of factors, including increased distance of new sources from consumers, increased investments associated with more efficient water-delivery systems, and increased treatment requirements to address water contamination. Mobilizing resources to meet the growing costs of expanding access, for both investments and operation and maintenance — particularly where water is subsidized — poses a major challenge.
In the early 1990s, subsidies for drinking water and irrigation amounted to $45 billion per year in developing countries. However, there now appears to be a general trend towards water charges that recover more of the operation and maintenance costs.
Unless well targeted at low-income groups, subsidies can primarily benefit middle- and high-income urban consumers connected to the public water-supply network, whereas the urban poor, who are often not connected to the piped network, have to rely on more expensive sources of supply, such as private vendors. A recent survey of several large Asian cities found that the price charged by informal vendors is generally a multiple of the price of water from public utilities. In Ghana, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru, the richest 20 per cent of the population get about twice the amount of subsidized water services as the poorest 20 per cent.
Water charges still remain far below the costs of water supply in many countries, especially in West Asia and North Africa. Monthly water bills in Egypt, for example, are as low as $1. Such low water charges are a disincentive for the private sector to invest in water infrastructure and for consumers to conserve water.
To ensure that low-income households can afford water, there is a trend in urban water pricing towards “increasing-block” tariffs, where consumers pay a low rate for an initial small quantity for basic needs, then increasing prices for higher quantities.
For the poorest households, however, even the lowest block tariffs may be expensive, and targeted subsidies for that group may continue to be needed. In many OECD countries, there has been a real increase in household water charges in recent years. Available evidence on affordability suggests that in about half the OECD countries, affordability of water charges for low-income households is either a significant issue now or could become so in the future if measures are not taken.
With respect to private participation in the water sector, some evidence suggests that the poor have benefited: e.g., in three Latin American countries, following private participation, the poorest quintile of the population obtained between 25 per cent and 35 per cent of new connections.13 Nonetheless, a more general review of the impact of infrastructure privatization on the poor in Latin America concludes that privatization generally failed to take the interests of the poor into account with regard to affordability of service and access to connections. For poor households, the affordability of connection to the piped network is often a greater obstacle than the affordability of the water consumed, unless appropriate methods of financing the connection charges are introduced, such as instalment payments added to monthly water bills or low-interest loans.
Convenient access to an improved water source is particularly important to women and children living in rural areas, who often must haul water over long distances. That detracts from time and energy that could be applied to income generation and education.
