Implications of Denmark’s water price reform for riverine and coastal surface water quality

Article 9 of the EU’s Water Framework Directive requires that Member States should provide ‘adequate incentives’ for efficient use of water resources. Although the Directive is mainly about the ecological quality of water bodies, control of quantity serves as an ‘ancillary element’ in delivering on the objectives. This article explores on the significance of water pricing reform for the ecological quality objectives for surface waters, and as a stepping stone in this analysis, for water resource use. It does so with a catchment based analysis of implications from water pricing reform introduced in the early 1990s in Denmark. Household water use is found to have been 50 per cent higher per capita before a reform, which introduced full-cost pricing and the fiscal Duty on Piped Water. The article finds that water pricing has an important role to play for future water quality management.