Water demand management in Kuwait

Kuwait is an arid country located in the Middle East, with limited access to water resources. Yet water demand per capita is much higher than in other countries in the world, estimated to be around 450 L/capita/day. There are several reasons for such a high demand, but one is certainly the price. Water does have its pricing schedule in Kuwait, but in reality water bills are not collected. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the impact of water pricing as a tool for managing water demand. The original idea, to construct a water demand model for Kuwait, was modified because of the lack of data about the effect of price increases and household water consumption characteristics in Kuwait. So, water demand models described in the literature for several arid regions were adapted and recalibrated for Kuwait. Simulations describing the influence of block tariffs, constant prices, free allowances followed by various pricing schemes were conducted. A pricing schedule has been proposed that consists of a free allowance followed by a constant price. The proposal has the following logic: if water is consumed wisely, only to satisfy vital needs, it should be free.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Milutinovic, Milan, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Elfaith A. B. Eltahir.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34590

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34590