To catch up, it is having to raise water tariffs above English levels.

ECONOMIST: Private passions

The contractor managed to cut water tariffs and to extend 24-hour service to an extra 3m poor people, who found that their piped supplies cost one-tenth or less of what they had been paying to private water vendors.

ECONOMIST: Private passions

MPs also voted down Labour's plans to introduce minimum standards for water company social tariffs by 1 April 2013.

BBC: Water Industry (Financial Assistance) Bill

Some of Argentina's privatisations of the 1990s were flawed by corruption and monopoly, but electricity and water were successful, with tariffs falling and coverage expanding under arms-length regulation.

ECONOMIST: Argentina's economy

Some of the important elements of these measures include full cost recovery, increase in tariffs, privatisation of water supply and introduction of tradable water rights.

FORBES: Access To Water May Limit India's Development

In another move to appease the public, the tariffs charged by privatised telephone, water and energy companies will change.

ECONOMIST: Argentina's economy

Fifteen years on, Malaysia has built 20 new dams and introduced a system of escalating tariffs in an effort to force people to save water.

CNN: Special Report Drought