Data & Tools
Water tariffs & cost benchmarks
What water costs in this region, on two measures that actually move: what households are charged, and what desalinated supply is sold for at the moment a PPP is awarded. Both are slow-moving, both are published, and both are hard to find in one place.
Reference values, converted at indicative rates. Reviewed annually. Last review: 29 September 2026.
The price of desalinated water
The winning bid at a large seawater PPP is the cleanest price signal this sector produces: a single number, competitively set, published at award. Between 2018 and 2020 that number nearly halved. Since then it has gone back up. Cheap debt, plant scale and cheap solar power were the three things driving it down, and by 2022 all three had stopped helping at once.
One point of care with the lowest number on the chart. Dubai took a bid of US$0.277 per cubic metre at Hassyan in September 2020, still the lowest ever recorded anywhere. The winner never reached financial close, the contract did not survive, and the same site was re-let in 2023 at US$0.365, a third higher, to a sovereign-backed consortium. No water has ever been produced at the record price. By 2026 Gulf tenders were clearing nearer US$0.73.
The winning price of desalinated water, by award year
US$ per cubic metre, first-year levelised water tariff at award
Procurer announcements and contemporaneous trade reporting. Bids are not strictly comparable: they differ in tenor, indexation, power supply and site conditions.
Treat these as indicative rather than strictly comparable. Tariffs differ in contract tenor, indexation, whether power is bundled, and how much site infrastructure the developer carries. They are nonetheless the closest thing the market has to a public price series.
What households pay
Almost every tariff in the region is blocked, most are subsidised, and several are differentiated by nationality, so a single headline number is usually misleading. The table gives a range where one is needed, the year it applies to, and where it came from. Where nothing comparable is published, it says so rather than guessing.
| Country | Residential tariff | Cost to supply | Notes | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | $0.03 – 1.60 | — | Steeply blocked: SAR 0.10/m³ for the first 15 m³ a month rising to SAR 6.00 above 60 m³ for water alone, and SAR 0.15 to 9.00 with sewage. The National Water Company's own schedule page is not machine-readable, so this is the published reproduction; confirm before relying on it. | 2022 | US-Saudi Business Council, Saudi Arabia's water sector (Feb 2022), table 1, from NWC |
| United Arab Emirates | $0.57 – 2.83 | — | Abu Dhabi, from 1 January 2025: UAE nationals pay AED 2.09 per 1,000 litres up to an average of 7,000 litres a day in a villa or 700 in a flat, and AED 2.60 above it; expatriates pay AED 7.84 up to 5,000 litres a day in a villa or 700 in a flat, and AED 10.41 above it. Social card holders get a free first band. These rates have applied since January 2017, and 5% VAT applies to water consumption. Dubai: AED 7.700/m³ for the first 27 m³ a month, AED 8.800 to 54 m³ and AED 10.120 above it, plus an AED 1.100/m³ fuel surcharge and 5% VAT. Converted at AED 3.6725 per US$. | 2026 | DEWA slab tariff (page updated 16 May 2026); TAQA Distribution, Utility Tariff 2025 and VAT FAQ (archived) |
| Qatar | $1.21 – 2.03 | — | QR 4.40/m³ up to 20 m³, QR 5.40 from 20 to 50 m³, QR 6.40 from 50 to 100 m³ and QR 7.40 from 100 to 150 m³: the slab schedule Kahramaa applied from September 2015, as reported at the time, replacing a flat QR 4.40. The report gives no billing period and no rate above 150 m³. Since the January 2021 bill a wastewater fee of 20% of the water bill applies to non-Qatari homes, which lifts the range to about $1.45 – 2.44; Qatari homes do not pay it. Bills are monthly under Law No. 2 of 2021. Kahramaa restructured its tariff categories during 2025, and the rates published since could not be retrieved, so this schedule may be out of date. Converted at QR 3.64 per US$. | 2015 | Gulf Times, 13 October 2015; Ashghal, 13 December 2020, for the wastewater fee; Law No. 2 of 2021 (Al Meezan) |
| Kuwait | $0.57 | $3.58 – 5.74 | Households pay 800 fils per 1,000 imperial gallons. Production cost is reported at KD 5–8 per 1,000 gallons , roughly six to ten times the tariff, one of the widest gaps anywhere. | 2024 | Ministry of Electricity & Water; press reporting |
| Bahrain | $0.07 – 2.05 | — | A subsidised Bahraini household pays 25 fils/m³ to 60 m³, 80 fils from 61 to 100 m³ and 775 fils above it. Bahrainis with more than one account, non-Bahrainis and commercial customers pay 775 fils/m³ from the first cubic metre: a thirty-one-fold gap on the same water. One subsidised account per household, and the holder must be registered as head of household. | 2026 | Electricity & Water Authority, ewa.bh/en/tariff |
| Oman | $1.72 – 3.43 | — | OMR 0.660/m³ for a citizen household with two accounts or fewer; OMR 0.770 for a citizen above two accounts and for expatriate residential; OMR 1.320 for commercial and government. Wastewater adds OMR 0.154 to 0.231/m³ and a monthly sewage fee. | 2025 | Nama Water Services, services tariffs and fees; Nama Dhofar Services 2025 schedule |
| Jordan | $0.31 upward | — | Seven monthly blocks under the restructuring the cabinet approved on 17 September 2023 for 2023 to 2029. The first block, to 6 m³ a month, was JOD 0.218/m³ for water and JOD 0.23 for sanitation in 2024, subsidised at 82% of cost; the subsidy falls block by block and the seventh block, above 42 m³, is not subsidised. Billing moved from quarterly to monthly with the September 2023 bill. | 2024 | Cabinet decision of 17 September 2023, as reported |
| Israel | $2.30 / $4.22 | $0.82 | ILS 8.508/m³ for the recognised household quantity and ILS 15.623 above it, including VAT, from 1 January 2026: those are water and sewage combined. Water alone is ILS 4.54 and 11.65/m³, and Mekorot charges local suppliers ILS 1.17 and 7.14/m³ excluding VAT, which is the leg a desalination bidder benchmarks against. The full average cost of fresh water for agriculture is ILS 3.02/m³. | 2026 | January 2026 tariff regulations as reproduced by the farmers’ federation; Davar for the increase |
| Egypt | $0.013 – 0.065 | — | EGP 0.65/m³ for the first 10 m³ a month rising to EGP 3.15 above 40 m³, with sanitation billed at 75% of the water charge. This is the schedule set by the prime ministerial decree of 31 May 2018 and applied from the June 2018 bill; the holding company denied on 2 August 2026 that any increase had been approved since. Among the lowest tariffs in the region in dollar terms, below Algeria and above Iraq, and falling in real terms as the pound depreciates against a schedule fixed in 2018. | 2018 | Prime ministerial decree of 31 May 2018, as reported; HCWW statement of 2 August 2026 |
| Morocco | $0.24 – 1.10 | $2.34 | The ONEE schedule runs MAD 2.37/m³ for the first 6 m³ a month to MAD 11.03 above 35 m³, excluding tax, with a fixed charge of MAD 6 a month. Above 12 m³ ONEE bills selectively: the rate of the block reached applies to the whole month's consumption, so the marginal price is far higher than the blocks suggest. Households in the large cities are billed by their regional multi-service company instead. | 2014 | Arrêté 2682.14 of 21 July 2014, BO 6275 bis; in force 1 August 2014 |
| Tunisia | $0.065 – 0.75 | — | Six quarterly blocks, excluding VAT: TND 0.200/m³ to 20 m³, 0.740 to 40, 1.040 to 70, 1.490 to 100, 1.770 to 150 and 2.310 above it. Tourist use pays the top rate from the first cubic metre. A mid-range household sits in the 1.040 block. | 2024 | Ministerial arrêté, JORT no. 033 of 1 March 2024, applying to bills issued from that date |
| Algeria | ~$0.05 | — | DZD 6.30/m³ for the first quarterly tranche of 25 m³ in the Algiers, Oran and Constantine zones, excluding tax, rising through multipliers to DZD 40.95 above 82 m³. Among the lowest tariffs in the region and far below the cost of the desalinated supply now entering the system. The schedule has not been revised since it took effect in 2005. | 2005 | Décret exécutif 05-13 of 9 January 2005, JO no. 05 |
| Turkey | ~$0.85 | — | Istanbul’s first residential block is TRY 35.26/m³ for water excluding VAT, with wastewater adding 17.62, on the utility’s 2026 schedule; the 2025 figure was 33.96. Blocks are not marginal: the whole month prices at the band reached. Of every 2.5 m³ consumed, 0.5 m³ goes unbilled up to the first 15 m³. The dollar figure moves sharply with the lira. | 2026 | İSKİ published schedule (archived copy) |
| Lebanon | flat-rate | — | Billed as an annual subscription per connection rather than by volume, so there is no meaningful per-cubic-metre tariff. The ministry’s own strategy says current levels, after the devaluation, do not let the water establishments break even, and targets cost recovery through tariff adjustment by 2028 against a national non-revenue water average put at about 50%. | 2024 | Ministry of Energy and Water, National Water Sector Strategy 2024–2035 |
| Iraq | ~$0.008 | $0.12 | IQD 10/m³ for the first block in Baghdad, on four monthly blocks of 30 m³, with sewerage charged at the same rate and industrial and government users at about IQD 100. Operation and maintenance cost was put at IQD 155/m³. Old, local and widely unpaid, but published: there is no comparable national schedule. | 2013 | World Bank project information document, Baghdad water and sewerage improvement |
| Iran | levy only | ~$0.35 | The budget law sets an earmarked levy of IRR 2,000/m³ of drinking water sold within the household consumption standard and IRR 4,000 above it, collected for the national water and wastewater company. That sits on top of a retail tariff set province by province, which is not published centrally. Desalination production cost has been given as about IRR 98,000/m³. | 2025 | Clause (ت) of Note 7 of the 1404 budget law, as reported; Tehran Times for the production cost |
| Syria | not published | — | No comparable schedule is published. | n/a | — |
| Yemen | not published | — | Supply is largely non-piped or humanitarian; tariffs where they exist are not comparable. | n/a | — |
| Libya | not published | — | Supply is effectively unpriced at the household level. | n/a | — |
| Palestine | ~$1.40 | ~$1.52 | The regulator publishes realised averages rather than a single tariff: NIS 5.08/m³ of water sold against an operating and maintenance cost of NIS 5.5/m³ in the West Bank, so most large providers sell below cost. Non-revenue water is 35% against a 30% maximum, and the tariff instrument is the unified system of 2021. No 2023 figure exists for Gaza. | 2023 | Water Sector Regulatory Council, performance report for 2023 |
The gap
Where both the tariff and the cost of supply are published, the distance between them is the single most important number in the sector. It determines whether a utility can fund maintenance, whether a PPP needs a government guarantee, and how much political capital any reform will consume.
What households pay, against what the water costs
US$ per cubic metre, where both figures are published
National utilities, water ministries and contemporaneous reporting; see the table for the source and year of each figure. Ranges are shown at their midpoint.