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Water consultants H20 Building Services question why water and waste water charges aren’t more transparent – what is the true cost of water.

Why aren’t the water and waste water charges more transparent asks water consultants H20 Building Services.

Take electricity charges for example, your bill is made up from a number of constituent parts: –

Wholesale cost – the raw energy cost.

Transportation costs – distribution.

Levies – Environmental and social obligation costs.

Supplier operating costs

The suppliers margin or profit.

That’s it in simple form, without going into granular detail the final tally as we understand it is : –

35.1% goes to the generators.

29.7% goes to the government.

22.8% goes to the networks.

12.4% goes to the energy supplier.

So with electricity and gas it is fairly straight forward and transparent. Then we start looking at our water and waste water charges, how much does a cubic metre of water and waste water cost?

We know what the final cost is as all water and waste water companies publish their charges and tariffs with the final costs and this is regulated as are other utilities, but the water and waste water companies make huge profits.

This is all fine and dandy but until we get more transparency on how all of the charges are made up to the final price we cannot really say whether consumers are getting value for money and getting what is considered a fair deal taking into consideration the monopoly position.

Until the final charges are broken down then we have no way of really challenging the costs and until that happens the water and waste water charges will continue to rise effectively unchallenged.

We consider it our duty as leading water consultants to press for change and research the actual cost of water, when we have those details then we can all get a grip on the water industry and effect real change to the benefit of consumers.

Our challenge to all of the water and waste water companies is this: – Engage with us, open up your water industry, breakdown the costs and be more transparent.

Who will be the first water company to do this? One, all or none of you?

Until then the question remains “what is the true cost of water”