The Water Journal
TWJ Water Index

What does water cost here — and why?

One household in every city: 15,000 litres a month, on a meter, ordinary domestic account. The same sum, done the same way, from each city's own published tariff.

Read down a row, not down the price column. Each price is in that city's own currency, so these figures sit in 9 different units and none is larger or smaller than another. Converting them needs an exchange rate fixed to a named month, and none is set. The two proportion columns do compare directly.

The grade measures the figure, not the city. A — no material assumption; may be sorted and compared. B — one disclosed assumption, under 1% of the bill. C — over 1%, or a tariff that cannot be standardized; shown as context, never ranked.

City1,000 litres · local currencyWastewater shareCost by volumeData
Abu DhabiAbu Dhabi Distribution Company (TAQA Distribution) 1,000 litresAED 8.23 volumetric rate AED 7.84 Wastewater shareheldof the full bill Cost by volumeflatsame at any volume Grade A DubaiDEWA · Dubai Municipality 1,000 litresAED 9.59 volumetric rate AED 7.70 Wastewater shareheldof the full bill Cost by volume+9%per litre for small households Grade A Hong KongWater Supplies Department 1,000 litresHKD 3.98 volumetric rate HKD 0.00 Wastewater share37%of the full bill Cost by volumeflatsame at any volume Grade A LondonThames Water 1,000 litres£ 3.11 GBPvolumetric rate £ 2.73 Wastewater share41%of the full bill Cost by volume+30%per litre for small households Grade A New YorkNew York City Water Board · NYC DEP 1,000 litres$ 1.89 USDvolumetric rate $ 1.89 Wastewater share61%of the full bill Cost by volume+58%per litre for small households Grade A ParisEau de Paris 1,000 litresEUR 1.87 volumetric rate EUR 1.19 Wastewater share57%of the full bill Cost by volume+19%per litre for small households Grade B PerthWater Corporation 1,000 litresAUD 3.92 volumetric rate AUD 2.11 Wastewater shareheldof the full bill Cost by volume+107%per litre for small households Grade A SeoulSeoul Arisu Waterworks Authority 1,000 litresKRW 822.00 volumetric rate KRW 580.00 Wastewater shareheldof the full bill Cost by volume+22%per litre for small households Grade B SingaporePUB, Singapore's National Water Agency 1,000 litresS$ 2.34 SGDvolumetric rate S$ 1.43 Wastewater share34%of the full bill Cost by volumeflatsame at any volume Grade B SydneySydney Water 1,000 litresAUD 4.00 volumetric rate AUD 3.41 Wastewater share51%of the full bill Cost by volume+38%per litre for small households Grade A TokyoTokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Waterworks 1,000 litresJPY 140.80 standing tariff · JPY 55.00 paid today Wastewater share41%of the full bill Cost by volume+73%per litre for small households Grade B TorontoCity of Toronto (Toronto Water) Supply-only benchmark unavailable — Structural non-comparability Grade C

No ranking is published. A subsidised tariff makes a bill small without making water cheap to produce.

Toronto TorontoNew York New YorkLondon LondonParis ParisAbu Dhabi Abu DhabiDubai DubaiSingapore SingaporeHong Kong Hong KongPerth PerthSeoul SeoulTokyo TokyoSydney Sydney

Geography, not price. A dot sits at the city’s latitude and longitude. Vertical position is how far north a city is and says nothing about what water costs there — New York is above Dubai because it is further north. The coastline is drawn coarsely and is there to give the dots a place to sit.

Two prices where relief is live. This table compares standing tariffs, because a city under a temporary waiver measured against a city without one measures a budget decision rather than water. Where the two differ, what the household actually pays today is printed beneath the tariff and leads that city’s own page.

Compare cities side by side → How every figure is calculated →