Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery
In rural and peri‑urban areas of Central America, community water organizations (CWOs) provide water to 60 % of the population, thereby playing a pivotal role in achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals. However, the underlying environmental, climatic, and institutional factors explaining th...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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Elsevier
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12820 |
| _version_ | 1854965735798865920 |
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| author | Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger Pacay, Eduardo Evia, Pablo |
| author_browse | Evia, Pablo Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger Pacay, Eduardo |
| author_facet | Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger Pacay, Eduardo Evia, Pablo |
| author_sort | Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger |
| collection | Repositorio CATIE |
| description | In rural and peri‑urban areas of Central America, community water organizations (CWOs) provide water to 60 % of the population, thereby playing a pivotal role in achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals. However, the underlying environmental, climatic, and institutional factors explaining the adoption of volumetric pricing from these water providers and its effect on service delivery are typically overlooked in the literature. In this paper, we address two issues. First, we test whether volumetric pricing affects the service water delivery in a rural setting, drawing on a random sample of cross-sectional data on 154 CWOs in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. We find that volumetric pricing is associated with substantially more successful water delivery, even when conditioned on institutional capacity, environmental attributes, climatic conditions, and country-fixed effects. Despite this strong relationship, volumetric pricing has yet to be widely adopted, particularly in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Therefore, as the second goal, we try to identify the institutional and socio-ecological conditions in which volumetric pricing is adopted. We find that volumetric pricing is more likely used when communities (1) experience adverse environmental and climatic conditions associated with water scarcity and (2) have greater institutional capacity. Our results highlight the importance of examining the social-ecological system to assess the performance and adoption of water management institutions |
| format | Artículo |
| id | RepoCATIE12820 |
| institution | Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| publisherStr | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | RepoCATIE128202025-05-17T22:42:58Z Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger Pacay, Eduardo Evia, Pablo Social-ecological systems Water tariffs Water scarcity Community-based management Local institutions Sede Central ODS 6 - Agua limpia y saneamiento ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades In rural and peri‑urban areas of Central America, community water organizations (CWOs) provide water to 60 % of the population, thereby playing a pivotal role in achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals. However, the underlying environmental, climatic, and institutional factors explaining the adoption of volumetric pricing from these water providers and its effect on service delivery are typically overlooked in the literature. In this paper, we address two issues. First, we test whether volumetric pricing affects the service water delivery in a rural setting, drawing on a random sample of cross-sectional data on 154 CWOs in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. We find that volumetric pricing is associated with substantially more successful water delivery, even when conditioned on institutional capacity, environmental attributes, climatic conditions, and country-fixed effects. Despite this strong relationship, volumetric pricing has yet to be widely adopted, particularly in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Therefore, as the second goal, we try to identify the institutional and socio-ecological conditions in which volumetric pricing is adopted. We find that volumetric pricing is more likely used when communities (1) experience adverse environmental and climatic conditions associated with water scarcity and (2) have greater institutional capacity. Our results highlight the importance of examining the social-ecological system to assess the performance and adoption of water management institutions 2025-05-16T21:35:16Z 2025-05-16T21:35:16Z 2024-05-31 Artículo https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12820 openAccess en World Development Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wds.2024.100163 12 páginas application/pdf Elsevier |
| spellingShingle | Social-ecological systems Water tariffs Water scarcity Community-based management Local institutions Sede Central ODS 6 - Agua limpia y saneamiento ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger Pacay, Eduardo Evia, Pablo Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title | Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title_full | Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title_fullStr | Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title_full_unstemmed | Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title_short | Volumetric pricing in rural Central America: Drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| title_sort | volumetric pricing in rural central america drivers of adoption and potential effects on water delivery |
| topic | Social-ecological systems Water tariffs Water scarcity Community-based management Local institutions Sede Central ODS 6 - Agua limpia y saneamiento ODS 10 - Reducción de las desigualdades |
| url | https://repositorio.catie.ac.cr/handle/11554/12820 |
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