Singapore’s finance minister has announced a rise in domestic water prices of 30 per cent over the next two years, citing the cost of desalination and water reuse.
“We have priced water to reflect the higher costs of desalination and NEWater production because every additional drop of water has to come from these two sources,” said finance minister Heng Swee Keat in a budget speech on Monday 20 February 2017.
“The cost of water production and transmission has increased as we build more desalination and NEWater plants, and lay deeper pipes through an urbanised environment. We need to update our water prices to reflect the latest costs of water supply,” he added.
The price for households will rise by SGD 9 to 8 ($6 to $11) a month. Prices for industry are rising by 27 per cent to SGD 2.74/m3 ($1.94) from July 2018. It’s the first increase in the price of water in Singapore for 17 years.