Overview of economic instruments for water management in Georgia

This chapter presents the purpose of economic instruments for water resources management and describes the main types of economic instruments, i.e. user charges, abstraction and pollution taxes, subsidies and penalties. The chapter also describes four broad principles used to justify the use of economic instruments for water management. The chapter discusses the current status of economic instruments in Georgia. At present, the country applies four categories of economic instruments for managing its water resources: fees for water abstraction, user charges for water supply and sanitation, irrigation water supply tariffs and fines for non-compliance with regulations concerning water resources. The chapter also discusses water pollution charges which were introduced in 1993 and then abolished in 2005.