How Much Extra Will Households Pay for Environmental Improvement? Impacts of Water and Severage Legislation in Preparation on Incomes of the Poorest Households in the South Bohemian Region
Abstract
Growing demand for water quality improvement has led to stricter legislation at the European Union level. The Czech legislation is beginning to significantly reflect the effort to meet the commitments.
Environmental impacts along with guarantee of sustainability and reliability of drinking water supplies are the key point of regulation in the water and sewerage sector. The amendment to the Waters Act in preparation, along with other amendments, will lead to increased prices of water and sewerage charges, thereby being reflected in household expenditures.
The effect of the changes in preparation is examined in the article among the lowest-income households in the South Bohemian Region. Based on micro models, it turns out that the lowest decile of households in the South Bohemian Region would expend an additional 0.5-1% of its incomes on water after all the changes are adopted.
The impacts on different cities in this region differ the most due to existing infrastructure and wastewater treatment technologies. The presented results thus bring a more accurate estimate of the impacts than those presented by the study of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, based on average data for the entire country.
They clearly indicate the necessity to analyse socially sensitive issues at the local level with respect to considerable regional differences across the Czech Republic, which may cause significant distortions.