State of the Art Review: Water pricing reform in China

This paper reviews water pricing reform in China after 1980, including framework, process, forces and considerations. China collects a water resources fee, a water supply tariff for hydraulic engineering, an urban water supply tariff, a wastewater collection and treatment tariff, and a pollutant discharge fee. The reform has been an exploration process. In theory, a comprehensive, systematic and advanced policy and framework have been developed. However, in practice, the reforms fluctuate among economic, social and environmental targets; do not comply with the reform objectives; and are heavily affected by external social and economic factors rather than by internal factors.