The South African city has topped Global Water Intelligence’s annual listing of the largest water tariff increases in 2018 with a 390% increase in the benchmark price of water and wastewater services. Overall the global average price of water and wastewater rose by 3.8% to $2.04, held down by price cuts in Northern Europe and cities in Africa and the Middle East choosing not to increase rates.
The results were released in a new white paper entitled The Global Value of Water, published by GWI in partnership with Arup and The Global Water Leaders Group (GWLG), and featuring analysis and commentaries on The Global Water Tariff Survey 2018. The 2018 survey is the most extensive yet carried out by GWI, calculating changes to the price of urban water and wastewater in 512 cities across 191 countries, based on a benchmark of an urban household of four using 15 m3/month.
The white paper documents how Cape Town’s tariff hike aimed to penalise households using more than 6m3/month as water levels in the dams serving the city fell below 35%. This measure helped cut peak water usage in the city by 54% and Day Zero – the day the city ran out of water – never came. With dams refilling, tariffs are now adjusted downwards.
The top ten tariff increases and top ten combined tariffs recorded in the 2018 survey are shown below:
|
|
City by tariff increase |
Change |
|
1 |
Cape Town (South Africa) |
389.6% |
|
2 |
Manama (Expats) (Bahrain) |
93.8% |
|
3 |
Cairo (Egypt) |
90.4% |
|
3= |
Alexandria (Egypt) |
90.4% |
|
5 |
Lilongwe (Malawi) |
83.6% |
|
6 |
Chennai (India) |
60.0% |
|
7 |
Minsk (Belarus) |
51.5% |
|
8 |
Miami (United States) |
47.2% |
|
9 |
Tirana (Albania) |
42.6% |
|
10 |
Pittsburgh (United States) |
33.6% |
|
|
City by combined tariff |
|
|
1 |
Portland, OR (United States) |
$8.22 /m3 |
|
1= |
Essen (Germany) |
$8.22 /m3 |
|
3 |
Juneau, AK (United States) |
$8.20 /m3 |
|
4 |
Honolulu, HI (United States) |
$7.93 /m3 |
|
5 |
Aarhus (Denmark) |
$7.91 /m3 |
|
6 |
Seattle, WA (United States) |
$7.73 /m3 |
|
7 |
San Francisco, CA (United States) |
$7.72 /m3 |
|
8 |
Charleston, WV (United States) |
$7.35 /m3 |
|
9 |
Cape Town (South Africa) |
$7.19 /m3 |
|
10 |
Valleta (Malta) |
$7.13 /m3 |
Christopher Gasson, Publisher of Global Water Intelligence, commented: “The global average price of water needs to at least double if everyone is going to get reliably potable water in the long term. These increases matter because they attract much needed investment into the sector and they encourage better use of resources.”
“We are also seeing utilities becoming more active in offering social tariffs to reduce the impact on low income households. Delhi for example, has been able to increase its overall revenues by introducing a jump tariff structure. Low volume users get water for free, but anyone using more than the basic threshold gets charged a full price for all of their water use.”
“Most tariffs are volumetric, but we are seeing a trend towards higher fixed elements of water and wastewater bills. It reflects the fact that for most utilities 80% of the costs are fixed, and in older cities with falling water demand, there are few alternatives.”
Average tariffs in major markets in 2018 are summarised in the table below:
|
Country |
Combined tariff |
Water tariff |
Wastewater tariff |
Change % |
|
Denmark |
$7.19 |
$3.39 |
$3.80 |
-0.1% |
|
Germany |
$5.91 |
$2.82 |
$3.09 |
-0.5% |
|
Australia |
$5.59 |
$2.78 |
$2.81 |
1.7% |
|
United States |
$4.26 |
$1.78 |
$2.48 |
4.3% |
|
France |
$3.98 |
$2.11 |
$1.87 |
1.3% |
|
United Kingdom |
$3.97 |
$2.09 |
$1.88 |
2.6% |
|
Canada |
$3.61 |
$1.95 |
$1.66 |
4.0% |
|
Italy |
$1.98 |
$0.96 |
$1.02 |
3.8% |
|
Japan |
$1.97 |
$1.12 |
$0.85 |
0.5% |
|
Mexico |
$0.76 |
$0.70 |
$0.06 |
4.9% |
|
Russia |
$0.75 |
$0.44 |
$0.31 |
7.7% |
|
China |
$0.54 |
$0.38 |
$0.16 |
1.9% |
|
India |
$0.17 |
$0.15 |
$0.02 |
6.9% |
|
World Average |
$2.04 |
$0.88 |
$1.16 |
3.8% |
The Global Value of Water and The Global Water Tariff Survey are available as part of a subscription to GWI Magazine, visit www.globalwaterintel.com/gwi/tariffsurvey
