conomic cost of water services (e.g. Vecino and Martin, 2004). Technology Technology as a potential driver plays very much a supporting role in that it can make the existing infrastructure more efficient and at the same time lower the cost at which services could be provided. Water services technology will not be able to change the physical facts that water is heavy, ephemeral in nature and expensive and difficult to transport and store. What it can do is impact on the "soft" infrastructure constituting the service component that transforms water from a raw material into an economically important good. Currently the main perspectives here relate to the inertia of the "traditional" technologies, the application of these from the developed to the developing world, and the movement to utilise more sustainable approaches in the latter. It is still apparent that the large suppliers of water services globally, together with the funders, favour the traditional approaches, perhaps with some new technological components such as membrane filters for the larger conurbations. Aid agencies meanwhile tend to promote ecosanitation and small-scale, easily maintained technology. Reconciling these approaches is the subject of ongoing research and depends on the drivers and urgent imperatives (e.g. CSIRO, 2005). For example, desalination technologies are perceived to be appropriate for new breakthroughs using advanced membrane technologies and offering greater energy efficiency. However, water will still need to be transported from coastlines or from areas of brackish water sources to the users. Water service providers are having to be more innovative and are exploring alternative or new technologies and asset management techniques that can improve their knowledge and understanding of water supply system operation and management, and help deliver these more efficiently. Changes in current practice are required that entail greater use of information and increasing automation while ensuring that human operatives can make decisions ab