The water bill will increase by almost 6% in 2025. The plenary session of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) approved this Tuesday the new water rates, which will increase by 2 euros on average per bimonthly bill to Barcelona and in 22 other municipalities. in 2025, a figure which in relative terms represents an increase of 5.95%. This is the second consecutive increase after 10 years of freezing rates, since in 2024 it amounted to 15%.
The price increase was approved with the “yes” of the PSC, the ERC, Junts and Vivim Montcada i Reixac; the abstention of En Comú Podem, Compromís i acord per Torrelles and Junts per Tiana, and the “no” of PP and VOX, as reported by the metropolitan body this Tuesday in a press release.
The modification provides that, for households with “moderate consumption”, the increase will be 2.9%, which is equivalent to an increase comparable to that of the consumer price index (CPI) and which will mean an increase of 1 euro per year. month, but For those with higher consumption, the increase will reach 6.72%.
The AMB also maintains the policy of varying the limits of the consumption blocks according to the number of people in the family unit, so that the effort of the variable consumption price is proportional, therefore When the family unit is made up of more than three people, the rate will be lower.
According to the press release, the main increases are driven by the works planned to cope with the current drought and mitigate its effectsas well as actions such as improving the economic cycle or cybersecurity.
In the case of Aigues du Pratwhich serves 1,000 family units, the expected rate increase in 2025 is 9.26%which represents in absolute value an average monthly increase of 1.17 euros per family unit or residential subscriber (2.34 euros/bill).
Besides Barcelona, the AMB indicated that The increase in prices will also affect the municipalities included in the ABEMCIA concessiona joint venture formed by Aigües de Barcelona (AGBAR), Criteria and the AMB, among which are other towns such as L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Badalona, Montcada i Reixac, Cornellà de Llobregat, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià. of Besòs, among others.
A “disproportionate” increase
On the other hand, in a press release this Tuesday, the Aigua és Vida entity described this increase in the price of water as “disproportionate”. “Aigües de Barcelona received grants valued at 16 million euros to improve the performance and renewal of the network, and 70 million LOSS for the Digitalization of Water”, he assured.
“It makes no sense to allocate costs to activities and staff increases related to leak detection and meter renewal,” they said.
They criticized the 36% increase in the Sustainable Development Goals allocation (3.6 million) as a “meaningless concept, without specific investment”, and they consider that the 22% increase in the R&D&I is unjustifiable (5.25 million) because, according to the entity, “the direct impact of the investigations on the metropolitan public service cannot be known”.
