? 10 June 2020 ⏰ 8:00 a.m. (EST)
Online forum
This virtual forum, organised by The Water Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be on balancing consumer protection and utility financial stability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The forum will explore the tension between consumer protection and the need to ensure everyone can access and afford water during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the imperative to keep utilities financially stable and solvent.
Under normal conditions, there is a tension between consumer protection and ensuring universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, and maintaining the financial stability of service providers. These problems become particularly acute when users are unable to pay due to external factors, and when these services become critical to ensuring not just the health of individual users, but the health and well-being of the general public at large.
During the current pandemic, human rights advocates and consumer protection groups have called for utilities to provide discounted or free water to many or all consumers during the pandemic. These calls come at a time that utilities are facing a crisis in revenues as consumers struggle to pay their bills, and high-volume commercial water users, such as factories, are shuttered. Many utilities are facing a significant decrease in the funds they will have available to both run their existing operations and invest in future growth.
The Forum is organised by SWA partners and provides a platform for learning on COVID-19 pandemic related challenges and cross constituency exchange between SWA partners.
Original source: SWA
Published on 08 June 2020
