10 Reasons Why Public Utilities Should be Regulated

Need a good reason to lobby for water regulation in your city or country? The Asian Development Bank has asked regulators, utility operators, and policy reform experts, and here are 10 good reasons they gave.

• A regulator will act as a proxy competitor, forcing the utility to operate efficiently
• A regulator can motivate a utility to act on consumer complaints
• A regulator can be blamed, instead of politicians, if tariffs are raised
• A regulator can prevent monopoly abuse
• A regulator can act as a referee between a frustrated public and defensive utility
• A regulator motivates utilities to conduct themselves professionally and upgrading their skills in order to present sound reasoning and defend their operations to the regulator
• A regulator can ensure utility sustainability
• A regulator creates employment
• A regulator can ensure that utilities make good on their promises, such as better service levels
• A regulator can set realistic limits to ambitious goals of utilities, while at the same time expand the public’s sustainability horizon further than 3 months at a time

More info on 'ADB's 'Water for All' vision for the Asia and Pacific region and water related topics is to be found here.