UPS AND DOWNS FOR WATER TARIFFS OVER A DECADE OF CHANGE

摘要

Most of the largest combined tariff increases in our survey in the last ten years have started from a very low base.Turkmenistan only introduced a water tariff in 2018, leaving the island of Ireland the only place not to charge for water. The end to subsidies in the Gulf and in Belarus pushed up tariffs, although they remain very low. Baltimore (USA) and Omaha (USA) have pushed up rates over the years to fund the costly renewal of ageing infrastructure, both for water and wastewater. The presence of seven Turkish cities in our top ten decreases is testament to the effect of inflation on water tariffs. Political turmoil caused the lira to drop in value against the dollar, meaning Turkish customers now pay less in real terms for their water than in 2011, despite some large tariff hikes in local currency. In Osaka (Japan), most of the decrease is caused by last year COVID-relief discount still being in place.