such an integrated utility can be found in the colombian city of medellín. utilities that provide water, sanitation and electricity can be found in frankfurt, germany (mainova), in casablanca, morocco and in gabon in west africa. multi-utilities provide certain benefits such as common billing and the option to cross-subsidize water services with revenues from electricity sales, if permitted by law. ownership and governance arrangements water supply providers can be either public, private, mixed or cooperative. most urban water supply services around the world are provided by public entities. as willem-alexander, prince of orange (2002) stated, "the water crisis that is affecting so many people is mainly a crisis of governance—not of water scarcity." the introduction of cost-reflective tariffs together with cross-subsidization between richer and poorer consumers is an essential governance reform in order to reduce the high levels of unaccounted-for water (uaw) and to provide the finance needed to extend the network to those poorest households who remain unconnected. partnership arrangements between the public and private sector can play an important role in order to achieve this objective. private sector participation an estimated 10 percent of urban water supply is provided by private or mixed public-private companies, usually under concessions, leases or management contracts. under these water service contract arrangements the public entity that is legally responsible for service provision delegates certain or all aspects of service provision to the private service provider for a period typically ranging from 4 to 30 years. the public entity continues to own the assets. these arrangements are common in france and in spain. only in few parts of the world water supply systems have been completely sold to the private sector (privatization), such as in england and wales as well as in chile. the largest private water companies in the world are suez and veolia environnement from france; aguas de barcelona from spain; and thames water from the uk, all of which are engaged internationally (see links to website of these companies below). in recent years, a number of cities have reverted to the public sector in a process called "remunicipalization". public water service provision 90% of urban water supply and sanitation services are currently in the public sector. they are owned by the state or local authorities, or also by collectives or cooperatives. they run without an aim for profit but are based on the ethos of providing a common good considered to be of public interest. in most middle and low-income countries, these publicly owned and managed water providers can be inefficient as a result of political interference, leading to over-staffing and low labor productivity. ironically, the main losers from this institutional arrangement are the urban poor in these countries. because they are not connected to the water supply network, they end up paying far more per liter of water than do more well-off households connected to the network who benefit from the implicit subsidies that they receive from loss-making utilities. the fact that we are still so far from achieving universal access to clean water and sanitation shows that public water authorities, in their current state, are not working well enough. yet some are being very successful and are modelling the best forms of public management. as ryutaro hashimoto, former japanese prime minister, notes: "public water services currently provide more than 90 percent of water supply in the world. modest improvement in public water operators will have immense impact on global provision of services." governance arrangements governance arrangements for both public and private utilities can take many forms (kurian and mccarney, 2010). governance arrangements define the relationship between the service provider, its owners, its customers and regulatory entities. they determine the financial autonomy of the service provider and thus its ability to maintain its assets, expand services, attract and retain qualified staff, and ultimately to provide high-quality services. key aspects of governance arrangements are the extent to which the entity in charge of providing services is insulated from arbitrary political intervention; and whether there is an explicit mandate and political will to allow the service provider to recover all or at least most of its costs through tariffs and retain these revenues. if water supply is the responsibility of a department that is integrated in the administration of a city, town or municipality, there is a risk that tariff revenues are diverted for other purposes. in some cases, there is also a risk that staff are appointed mainly on political grounds rather than based on their professional credentials. standardization international standards for water supply system are covered by international classification of standards (ics) 91.140.60. comparing the performance of water and sanitation service providers comparing the performance of water and sanitation service providers (utilities) is needed, because the sector offers limited scope for direct competition (natural monopoly). firms operating in competitive markets are under constant pressure to out perform each other. water utilities are often sheltered from this pressure, and it frequently shows: some utilities are on a sustained improvement track, but many others keep falling further behind best practice. benchmarking the performance of utilities allows the stimulation of competition, establish realistic targets for improvement and create pressure to catch up with better utilities. information on benchmarks for water and sanitation utilities is provided by the international benchmarking network for water and sanitation utilities. financial aspects costs and financing the cost of supplying water consists, to a very large extent, of fixed costs (capital costs and personnel costs) and only to a small extent of variable costs that depend on the amount of water consumed (mainly energy and chemicals). the full cost of supplying water in urban areas in developed countries is about us$1–2 per cubic meter depending on local costs and local water consumption levels. the cost of sanitation (sewerage and wastewater treatment) is another us$1–2 per cubic meter. these costs are somewhat lower in developing countries. throughout the world, only part of these costs is usually billed to consumers, the remainder being financed through direct or indirect subsidies from local, regional or national governments (see section on tariffs). besides subsidies water supply investments are financed through internally generated revenues as well as through debt. debt financing can take the form of credits from commercial banks, credits from international financial institutions such as the world bank and regional development banks (in the case of developing countries), and bonds (in the case of some developed countries and some upper middle-income countries). tariffs almost all service providers in the world charge tariffs to recover part of their costs. according to estimates by the world bank the average (mean) global water tariff is us$0.53 per cubic meter. in developed countries the average tariff is us$1.04, while it is only u$0.11 in the poorest developing countries. the lowest tariffs in developing countries are found in south asia (mean of us$0.09/m3), while the highest are found in latin america (us$0.41/m3). data for 132 cities were assessed. the tariff is estimate for a consumption level of 15 cubic meters per month. few utilities do recover all their costs. according to the same world bank study only 30% of utilities globally, and only 50% of utilities in developed countries, generate sufficient revenue to cover operation, maintenance and partial capital costs. according to another study undertaken in 2006 by nus consulting, the average water and sewerage tariff in 14 mainly oecd countries excluding vat varied between us$0.66 per cubic meter in the united states and the equivalent of us$2.25 per cubic meter in denmark. however, water consumption is much higher in the us than in europe. therefore, residential water bills may be very similar, even if the tariff per unit of consumption tends to be higher in europe than in the us. a typical family on the us east coast paid between us$30 and us$70 per month for water and sewer services in 2005. in developing countries, tariffs are usually much further from covering costs. residential water bills for a typical consumption of 15 cubic meters per month vary between less than us$1 and us$12 per month. water and sanitation tariffs, which are almost always billed together, can take many different forms. where meters are installed, tariffs are typically volumetric (per usage), sometimes combined with a small monthly fixed charge. in the absence of meters, flat or fixed rates—which are independent of actual consumption—are being charged. in developed countries, tariffs are usually the same for different categories of users and for different levels of consumption. in developing countries, the situation is often characterized by cross-subsidies with the intent to make water more affordable for residential low-volume users that are assumed to be poor. for example, industrial and commercial users are often charged higher tariffs than public or residential users. also, metered users are often charged higher tariffs for higher levels of consumption (increasing-block tariffs). however, cross-subsidies between residential users do not always reach their objective. given the overall low level of water tariffs in developing countries even at higher levels of consumption, most consumption subsidies benefit the wealthier segments of society. also, high industrial and commercial tariffs can provide an incentive for these users to supply water from other sources than the utility (own wells, water tankers) and thus actually erode the utility's revenue base. investments needed in developing countries water supply and sanitation require a huge amount of capital investment in infrastructure such as pipe networks, pumping stations and water treatment works. it is estimated that in developing countries investments of at least us$200 billion have to be made per year to replace aging water infrastructure to guarantee supply, reduce leakage rates and protect water quality. international attention has focused upon the needs of developing countries. to meet the millennium development goals targets of halving the proportion of the population lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015, current annual investment on the order of us$10 to us$15 billion would need to be roughly doubled. this does not include investments required for the maintenance of existing infrastructure. once infrastructure is in place, operating water supply and sanitation systems entails significant ongoing costs to cover personnel, energy, chemicals, maintenance and other expenses. the sources of money to meet these capital and operational costs are essentially either user fees, public funds or some combination of the two. it is also important to consider is the flexibility of the water supply system. metering a typical residential water meter metering of water supply is usually motivated by one or several of four objectives. first, it provides an incentive to conserve water which protects water resources (environmental objective). second, it can postpone costly system expansion and saves energy and chemical costs (economic objective). third, it allows a utility to better locate distribution losses (technical objective). fourth, it allows suppliers to charge for water based on use, which is perceived by many as the fairest way to allocate the costs of water supply to users. metering is considered good practice in water supply and is widespread in developed countries, except for the united kingdom. in developing countries it is estimated that half of all urban water supply systems are metered and the tendency is increasing. water meters are read by one of several methods: the water customer writes down the meter reading and mails in a postcard with this info to the water department; the water customer writes down the meter reading and uses a phone dial-in system to transfer this info to the water department; the water customer logs into the website of the water supply company, enters the address, meter id and meter readings a meter reader comes to the premises and enters the meter reading into a handheld computer; the meter reading is echoed on a display unit mounted to the outside of the premises, where a meter reader records them; a small radio is hooked up to the meter to automatically transmit readings to corresponding receivers in handheld computers, utility vehicles or distributed collectors a small computer is hooked up to the meter that can either dial out or receive automated phone calls that give the reading to a central computer system. most cities are increasingly installing automatic meter reading (amr) systems to prevent fraud, to lower ever-increasing labor and liability costs and to improve customer service and satisfaction. global access water supplied by