Private Sector Participation, Regulation and Social Policies in Water Supply in France.

This paper contributes to the literature on social water policies by clarifying the definition of water affordability and water poverty and by providing the first empirical analysis of water affordability in France. Using quantitative analyses of French household microeconomic surveys, it is shown that 4.31% of households in France (representing around 1.16 million households) were obliged to spend more than 3% of their income on water charges in 2001. The results also demonstrate that single parent families (especially if the head of the household is a woman) or, conversely, large families for which social aid represents a large proportion of total income are the most vulnerable groups in terms of water affordability. The econometric results also suggest that private participation in the water sector has not helped the poor in terms of affordability and that the type of delegation contract matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]