Rapidly-growing concern among scholars and policy makers over residential drinking water affordability in the United States highlights the need to identify and assess the efficacy of potential solutions to address this problem. Accordingly, in this advanced review of the literature, we examine the state of scholarly evidence over the last 30 years on the prevalence and effectiveness of strategies to address household drinking water affordability in the United States. We classify interventions into four categories: rate structure designs, water efficiency programs, recurring bill assistance, and crisis relief. Our findings are twofold. First, the conceptual literature on affordability interventions is fairly robust, but demonstrates both tradeoffs and complementarities across the four approaches. Second, despite employing a PRISMA approach, we identify few empirical studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of affordability interventions in practice, especially the targeted approaches of recurring bill assistance and crisis relief. The literature on affordability interventions thus appears to lag considerably behind scholarship identifying and defining the problem of affordability. Accordingly, we suggest key questions throughout our review that need to be answered, thereby providing an agenda for future research on drinking water affordability solutions.

中文翻译：

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饮用水服务可负担性问题的解决方案：证据审查

学者和政策制定者对美国居民饮用水可负担性的担忧日益加剧，这凸显了识别和评估解决这一问题的潜在解决方案的有效性的必要性。因此，在这篇文献的高级审查中，我们检查了过去 30 年关于解决美国家庭饮用水负担能力的策略的流行和有效性的学术证据状态。我们将干预分为四类：费率结构设计、用水效率计划、经常性账单援助和危机救济。我们的发现是双重的。首先，关于可负担性干预的概念文献相当丰富，但展示了四种方法之间的权衡和互补。其次，尽管采用了 PRISMA 方法，我们发现很少有实证研究证明了可负担性干预措施在实践中的有效性，尤其是经常性账单援助和危机救济的有针对性的方法。因此，关于负担能力干预的文献似乎大大落后于确定和定义负担能力问题的学术研究。因此，我们在整个审查过程中提出了需要回答的关键问题，从而为未来关于饮用水可负担性解决方案的研究提供了议程。因此，关于负担能力干预的文献似乎大大落后于确定和定义负担能力问题的学术研究。因此，我们在整个审查过程中提出了需要回答的关键问题，从而为未来关于饮用水可负担性解决方案的研究提供了议程。因此，关于负担能力干预的文献似乎大大落后于确定和定义负担能力问题的学术研究。因此，我们在整个审查过程中提出了需要回答的关键问题，从而为未来关于饮用水可负担性解决方案的研究提供了议程。