Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Update on the State of the Sector

36 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2018

See all articles by Salvador Bertomeu Sanchez

Salvador Bertomeu Sanchez

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

Tomas Serebrisky

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Date Written: March 2018

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide with an updated snapshot of the water and sanitation sector across Latin American countries, focusing of its key policy characteristics. Access to water and sanitation in the region has improved since the 1990s, decade during which almost every country adopted major reforms of the sector, consisting mainly in increasing private sector participation and the creation of autonomous regulatory bodies. We find that challenges remain in tariff design, service quality, financial health of the sector, and in governance issues related to a lack of coordination between the level of decentralization of the regulation and management of the sector. Finally, the paper provides with a review of the related empirical literature.

Keywords: Water, sanitation, Latin America, privatization, regulation, tariffs, service quality

JEL Classification: L33, L38, L43, L51, L95, O13, O18, O54

Suggested Citation

Bertomeu Sanchez, Salvador and Serebrisky, Tomas, Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Update on the State of the Sector (March 2018). Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS 2018/10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3157143 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3157143

Salvador Bertomeu Sanchez (Contact Author)

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) - European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES)

Ave. Franklin D Roosevelt, 50 - C.P. 114
Brussels, B-1050
Belgium

Tomas Serebrisky

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) ( email )

1300 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20577
United States

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