Starting next year, residents of Prague will see an increase in their water bills. A year-on-year increase of 13% is expected. The water and sewerage rates will increase, with the total cost amounting to 144.88 CZK per cubic meter. This year, Prague citizens paid 128.18 CZK. The prices for 2024 are derived from a document that Prague councilors approved on Monday. In February 2022, councilors approved a strategy until 2028, according to which the city will annually increase water and sewerage rates by two percent above inflation.
The water management infrastructure in Prague is managed by the city firm Pražská vodohospodářská společnost (PVS), which leases it to Pražské vodovody a kanalizace (PVK) until 2028. Next year, PVS will collect approximately 3.55 billion CZK from the rent, which is about 584 million more year-on-year.
The annual increase means an increase of approximately 56 CZK per month per person for all water management services, which would mean a rise of 671 CZK per person per year. The socially bearable price of water calculated by the sector authority for the capital city of Prague for 2024 is 235.47 CZK per cubic meter.
The price for water and sewerage remains below the socially bearable limit, according to the document in Prague. The price per liter of produced and delivered drinking water, including subsequent disposal and ecological cleaning, costs less than 15 healers.
The year-on-year increase also reflects the amount of water infrastructure rent that PVK pays to the city firm PVS. Compared to last year, it will increase to about 3.55 billion CZK, when this year’s rent is set at about 2.96 billion. Most of the collected money, over 3.3 billion, will be used by PVS to invest in the water supply and sewerage renewal.
PVK is 51% owned by Veolia and 49% by the city through PVS. The company operates a water supply network that is 4444 kilometers long and a sewerage network that is 4760 kilometers long, and last year, it had 93,521 contractual customers.