2017
European Environment Agency (EEA): Pricing and non-pricing measures for managing water demand in Europe, Service Contract No 3415/B2015/EEA.56130 for the European Environment Agency. All surveyed countries (Germany - DE, Denmark - DK, Spain - ES, France - FR, Italy - IT, Romania - RO, Sweden – SE and Cyprus - CY) have mechanisms in place to provide an incentive for a more efficient water use in the domestic sector, ranging from simple metering and volumetric tariffs to rising block tariffs. But the evidence on the real incentiveness of existing pricing (tariffs) for a more efficient water use is scarce, if available at all. Decreasing water demand means reduced revenues for water companies, which can pose issues for cost recovery or eventually lead to an increase in water prices so that cost recovery is guaranteed.