The price of water rises or brings about four problems or represents international capital interests

As for the water price to be adjusted, Li Zizhan, an assistant researcher at the Center for predicting scientific Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that although the price of water supply is in the long run an inevitable trend, there are still four issues worth discussing. China's urban water supply in the past has been as a public goods to provide, its price for a long time below market prices, resulting in China's excessive consumption of water resources, industrial upgrading blocked, water enterprises profit was squeezed.　　In the world, the voice of resource environmental protection and transformation of economic development model is becoming more and more strong. Li Zizhan said that in such a large context, since the end of 2008, many cities in China have also appeared in the city water price increase calls.　　But at present only through a strategy of price increase, to achieve the expected effect of saving water resources, and to enable all parties to be satisfied with the distribution of benefits, may bring the following four problems. First, the rise in water prices has limited the effect of saving water for residents. Residential water is a rigid demand, the current price of urban water supply has undergone several increases, low-income residents have begun to save water, the space for continued water-saving, and the water costs accounted for a small proportion of living expenses of high-income residents, the price elasticity is not obvious. Therefore, whether the price increase can effectively bring resource savings is questionable.　　The possible result is that water is not obvious and the cost of living for low-income residents has increased. Second, the rise in water prices may represent the interests of international capital. Global water giant France Veolia Water Co. Suez Group, the British Angley Water Company, Budweiser International Group and other well-known water companies into the water market in China for nearly 10 years, has won the Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and other major cities throughout the country's major water projects. Therefore, the rise in prices represents the international giants began to demand upfront investment returns, it is worth pondering.　　In the situation of price increase of water supply and the income of foreign capital, it is necessary to give the public and private enterprises a better explanation, or make corresponding adjustment on the interest arrangement. Again, the use of price increases should be improved. In 2006, the National Development and Reform Commission put forward the method of supervising and examining the pricing cost of urban water supply (for trial implementation), and gave the basic criterion for the pricing of urban water supply, that is, the cost of urban water supply is composed of reasonable water cost, transmission and distribution cost and period cost. (Period cost refers to the management expenses, operating expenses and financial expenses incurred by the city water supply enterprises in organizing and managing the production and operation of water supply.) It can be seen that the increase in revenue should be in accordance with the provisions of this method to cover these three costs. In this way, the approach is more inclined to address water resource conflicts from the point of view of the distribution of the benefits of water supply and water, but it is not sufficient if it is viewed from a national strategy that is to conserve resources.　　We can draw on the experience of developed countries to use some of the price increase income to promote the efficiency of enterprises and residents of the technology investment. Finally, the price of water supply alone can not fully mobilize the creativity of waterworks enterprises. Improved water supply efficiency and water efficiency are equally important to water conservation. Many more detailed incentive mechanisms for demand side, such as ladder fee system, the price difference between large residents and industrial water, the difference between different uses of water supplyThe price arrangement and so on, all need water enterprises themselves to play a subjective initiative. For example, providing each user with a different use of the water pipe is a larger project. Water enterprises under the current water supply non-market arrangement do not have the power to reduce the consumption of water resources through technical renovation because they do not bear the profit responsibility. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the incentive mechanism and financial subsidy mechanism of water enterprises. (reporter Albert Chan Fang Ye intern Jiang Wang Xiwen)