This April 10th, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) announced a water tariff hike after a gap of 11 years. The Board also decided to increase the tariff by 3% on April 1st every year.

For most households, the tariff hike would mean paying ₹20 to ₹30 more on their monthly water bills this year. While the middle class sees a slight increase, slum dwellers face exorbitant costs, highlighting a stark inequality in access to clean, affordable water across the city.

Here is how the tariff hike will reflect in your water bill this May.

For domestic users in individual houses:

For apartment residents:

BWSSB has introduced the slab-based tariff model for apartments, replacing the bulk charging model under which a flat rate of ₹22 was levied per 1,000 litres. Below are the new tariffs.

For non-domestic users:

What will be your water tariff from next month?

According to BWSSB, the average per capita Cauvery consumption in Bengaluru is 108 litres per day. Based on this, an average household of 4–5 members consumes approximately 15,000 litres a month. For such a family living in an individual house, the new water charges would be ₹166, as the first 8,000 litres will be charged at the rate of ₹8.5 per kilolitre, and the next 7,000 litres at ₹14/KL. Considering meter cost and other charges, the household’s total monthly bill would be around ₹250–₹270.

Similarly, apartment units that consume 15,000 litres per month would get a total monthly bill of ₹400-500. For example, a 50-unit apartment would get a total bill of ₹21,400 on consuming 7.5 lakh litres. Divided, the amount would come to ₹428 per unit.

On the other hand, apartments in the outskirts of the city don’t want to get Cauvery connections because of high pro rata charges and inadequate water supply. These apartments without Cauvery connections end up spending around ₹1200–₹1300 every month on private water tankers.

Slum dwellers pay more, get lesser than Cauvery users

Ever wondered where the urban poor living in slums get their water from and how much they pay?

Very few slums benefit from BWSSB’s scheme to provide water, capped at 10,000 litres per household per month. Besides, only 413 slums in the city have been declared or officially recognised. And just over three lakh people occupy these slums, as per the 2011 Census.

But the actual number of slums and slum dwellers is far higher. A 2018 study by Duke University had identified more than 2,000 slums in the city using satellite imaging.

Water crisis is a permanent feature in both declared and undeclared slums. While declared slums may have partly functional common water taps, many undeclared slums have no water source at all. Hence slum residents often buy water from water ATMs or neighbouring houses. BWSSB has identified many slums that ‘enjoy’ free water by illegally connecting to its distribution system, but for many residents it is simply the act of meeting a basic survival need in the absence of formal access.

Geeta, who lives in an undeclared slum in Kasturinagara, pays ₹5 for just 20 litres of water. That’s ₹250 per 1,000 litres—nearly 30 times what a regular household pays for Cauvery water. For non-potable uses, Geeta gets water from a common borewell nearby, for which she pays a bribe of ₹100 every month to the valve operator. This means she spends around ₹400 on water every month, out of her household income of ₹8,000 to ₹10,000. She also has to lose work and pay two days a week, to fetch water. 

Read more: Cauvery connections are no panacea for Bengaluru’s water-starved slums

Lingamma who lives in an undeclared slum in Laggare buys water from her neighbours at ₹1 to ₹3 per pot. She says she never knows if it is potable Cauvery water or borewell water. To buy 10 to 12 pots of water every day, she spends around ₹600 to ₹800 every month — more than her daily wage of ₹500.

“While people in slums have to pay ₹250 for a kilolitre of water, it is just ₹24 for the ones in apartments, how is this fair?” questions Vishwanath Srikantaiah, water conservationist and Advisor at Biome Environmental Trust. “In some slums, people pay more than a thousand rupees for water tankers,” said Tejus Kumar, organisation convenor at Slum Janandolana Karnataka.

Lingamma buys roughly 4,500 to 5,400 litres of water a month, which is the typical water consumption in a slum household according to Vishwanath. This is just one-third of the 15,000 litres a regular household uses in a month.

While a regular household pays about ₹166 for water per month as mentioned earlier, slum dwellers end up spending ₹600 to ₹800, says Tejas.

That is, slum dwellers pay nearly four to five times more than regular households, just to get a third of the water the latter consume.

Cauvery consumers question tariff hike

The concerns of Cauvery consumers are quite different from that of slum dwellers.

George Joseph owns a four-unit house, occupied by around 10 tenants, in RT Nagar in the core of the city. He pays a monthly water bill of around ₹750 for the entire building. “Now that the tariffs have been increased, the monthly bill will be more than ₹800,” he says. “The underground drainage (UGD) was laid years ago. Why should we still pay sanitation charges which are more than ₹150?” However, BWSSB levies sanitation charges on consumers for UGD maintenance and sewage treatment, and not just for laying the drainage pipes.

Vishwanath says, “People should understand the cost of water supply and sewage treatment, and they should pay for it. If we don’t pay the true price for water, how do we expect sewage to be not flowing in our rivers, streams and lakes?”

It is important to note that BWSSB is an autonomous body that receives no government subsidies and relies on water bills as its sole revenue source.

“Without raising prices, how will BWSSB extend its service to the poor?” Vishwanath adds.

Read more: Invisible and struggling: Common water taps a rarity in Bengaluru’s undeclared slums

How much does BWSSB spend on water?

According to a press release by BWSSB, the Board spends ₹200 crore every month to supply water, and collects ₹120 crore through water bills. The tariff hike is to bridge the ₹80 crore gap. BWSSB spends Rs 90 crore every month on electricity alone to pump Cauvery water from a reservoir 90 kilometres away and 350 metres below the city’s elevation.

Vishwanath estimates BWSSB’s true cost of supplying water and managing sewage at ₹95 per kilolitre, far less than what it collects through bills. “When water for the middle class and rich is subsidised, the poor will suffer, paying the highest prices. BWSSB should prioritise universal connections,” he says. 

For those with piped Cauvery water, the tariff hike only means a slight increase in monthly bills. But for those who have no formal access to water, the daily struggle to secure water remains far more pressing yet largely overlooked.

[Harshitha Padmavinod, reporter at Citizen Matters, contributed to this article.]

Also read:

• Costly and scarce: Water access a daily struggle for Bengaluru slum dwellers
• How long before “water for all” becomes a reality in Mumbai
• How water crisis deepens gender inequality