Equity in water payments in Portugal: 2005-2016 and regions NUT II
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59072/rper.vi66.295Keywords:
Equity, concentration index, water services, Portugal, Regions NUT IIAbstract
Achieving, by 2030, “universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all” is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal 6, of the United Nations. This work addresses the dimension of affordability, and its main objective is to assess equity in water payments in Portugal over a decade and by NUT II regions.
Data come from the Household Budget Survey 2005/2006; 2010/2011 e 2015/2016. To quantify the disparities between the households’ resources and their water expenditure, we estimate the Kakwani index ( ) which indicates if payments (for water) are proportional ( ), regressive ( ) or progressive ( ).
The richest 20% spent on water, on average, between 2 and 2.7 times more than the poorest 20%. Nonetheless, the average total expenditure of the richest was between 5.4 and 6.9 times that of the poorest. In 2015/2016, the burden of water payments was the lowest in Madeira (1.32%) and the highest in Azores (1.79%). The results for the Kakwani index confirm the regressivity in water payments in the whole country and its regions, burdening more low-income families, and suggest a deterioration over time.
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