At the beginning of this month, Houston Public Works announced that water rates would be increasing by 15%.
In part, the increase is to account for inflation, which has almost doubled since last year’s water rates were determined. However, officials say the increase is largely because rates have been too low over the past few years to make necessary improvements.
The department announced there will a 9.2% increase, comprising an inflationary index of 8.2% and a 1% increase in correspondence with a 1% population increase. This is in addition to an increase of around 6% in order to address water infrastructure problems in the city.
Carol Haddock, director of Houston Public Works, said many of the city’s water infrastructure issues have been ignored for years as the city undercharged for water. As a result, necessary replacement and repairs have continued to add up.
“The reason that we have as many breaks and the problems that we’ve been fighting with our water system and wastewater system in recent years is because of decades of not charging the rates that needed to be charged to be able to reinvest in systems,” Haddock said. "So we're basically seeing the consequences of that today."
Even though the increase is significant, it still is not as large as the increase the department itself has seen in operation costs due to inflation.
"This increase actually is lower than the increases in costs that we’ve seen in chemicals and that we’ve seen in many of the products that we use in treating water and treating wastewater," said Haddock.
The increase, which goes into effect this month, will go toward measures like replacing old pipe, putting in new wells and improving water and wastewater treatment plants.
