13.2.1  Water tariffs used in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the rising block tariff is used for both domestic and non-domestic users. The National Guideline for Urban Water Utilities Tariff Setting recommends that no more than five blocks should be used. The recommended blocks for medium and large towns are shown in Table 13.1. The Guideline also recommends a set of block ranges for small towns.

Based on these block ranges, the price paid by each customer is calculated according to the volume of water they use. The actual costs of water supply differ from town to town, depending on various factors such as the ease of treatment of the raw water and the cost of laying distribution pipes, etc., so the price paid by consumers also varies between towns.

The following example uses the pricing of water to domestic users in Harar, where there are four blocks for domestic consumers. Table 13.2 shows the price in birr paid per m³ for each block.

Here is an example of how a water bill is calculated based on these blocks. Imagine the household of Abdul Aziz and his family, who live in Harar and use 12 m³ of water per month.

Calculation of the water bill for Abdul Aziz’s household:

The first 5 m³ will cost 5 x 5 = 25 birr.

The next 5 m³ will cost 5 x 9 = 45 birr.

The remaining 2 m³ will cost 2 x 13 = 26 birr.

The total bill for the month will therefore be 25 + 45 + 26 = 96 birr.