Access to clean water is a key issue for people in many countries around the world.
In Australia, large cities have very good water supplies that supply to well-monitored quality standards. But this is not the case in remote and regional areas. Smaller communities can be vulnerable to weather events overwhelming their water supply systems, or a paucity of funding for monitoring and quality control.
New research shows that people in Australia are willing to pay $300-$800 p.a. for a water improvement for good quality potable water, and State / Territory Governments need to provide better systems to help maintain reasonable standards in more remote communities.
Professor Quentin Grafton of the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU is presenting research findings at the annual Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Conference in Canberra this week.
Listen to the interview here.
This piece was first published on The Wire. Read the original here: https://www.thewire.org.au/story/water-quality-an-issue-for-regional-australia/