Overview
- A Food & Water Watch report released Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, found that average household drinking water bills at the 500 largest community systems increased about 62% between 2015 and 2025.
- Households served by for-profit utilities paid far more than those on public systems, with private systems charging roughly 67% higher bills on average in 2025.
- The report flagged affordability problems in 93% of the systems studied and identified Puerto Rico as especially severe, where some low-income households paid about 20% of income for water.
- Researchers and utilities point to several causes for rising rates: aging infrastructure, pollution cleanup, climate-driven drought and extreme weather, costly water transport and large infrastructure shortfalls that federal and industry studies put between hundreds of billions and multiple trillions of dollars.
- The report renews calls for restored federal funding, limits on privatization and tighter rules to stop large users from shifting costs to residents while utilities and trade groups emphasize sector-wide cost pressures and regulatory oversight of rate increases.