I find this interesting and relevant to whats happening in other parts of the world. BTW its user pays in my city for water too.

D. PROSPECTS FOR WATER PRICING
Looking at the evolution of water prices relative to headline inflation from1986 to 2011, real water prices have risen similarly to those of oil,highlighting the scarcity of the resource. Should this trend continue, thesector is likely to offer further strong risk-adjusted returns for equityinvestorsxl.
Whereas most utilities encounter issues raising cost-covering watertariffs, the price of water has increased significantly in many regions inrecent years. In the US and UK, water tariffs have outstripped headlineinflation by 18% and 27% respectively over the past five years. Theequivalent statistics for the same period for Europe, Canada andAustralia show outperformance of 9%, 35% and 22% respectively in waterprices over and above headline inflationxli.

There is considerable disparity in water prices between countries. Theprice of a cubic meter of water in France, which is relatively water-rich, isabout 50% higher than the price of a cubic meter of water in Spain, whichis considered to be water-poor. Countries including the UK, Denmark andGermany set tariffs not only covering operating costs, but also coveringthe capital financing costs. Libya, Ireland and Turkmenistan, barely
charge for water services at all and taxpayers bear the entire financingburden. In China and India, water is very cheap as a percentage ofdisposable income, but this fosters over-extraction of water resources, asituation that will prove to be unsustainablexlii.
In China in 2009 the integrated water price of 36 large and medium-sizedcities went up 5.5% year-on-year. Larger increases can be expected inthe years ahead, given that many hike requests have been lodged withthe local pricing agency but have yet to be implemented. Recent tariffannouncements highlight the government’s strong commitment to raisingtariffs, an important factor in the future development of the Chinesewater market.